


Devil On My Shoulder

by kimjibyung



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Demons, Character Death, Demonic Possession, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Rape Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:00:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 19
Words: 55,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23547283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimjibyung/pseuds/kimjibyung
Summary: College wasn’t supposed to be that hard. It wasn’t that hard, Wu Yifan was an intelligent boy that worked hard with his studying and just trying to survive the next semester. The boys that stayed in his dorm building, however, made it hard. The constant teasing, the mockery, and the mistreatment made his college experience miserable.He just didn’t realize how much a certain group of boys watched him. That is, until he ends up bound and gagged in the center of a chalk-lined pentagram. The strange chanting coming from the leader of the group and the way the flames in the candles keep flaring up higher and higher, fear clings to him.But… one requirement for the summoning of the creature they want is that the sacrifice has to be virginal. One thing that Wu Yifan is not. So the summoning backfires.And somehow Yifan is stuck with a red haired demon following him around, a dead boy that resembles the demon, and the unfortunate events that just keep unfolding in his life.
Relationships: Kim Junmyeon | Suho/Wu Yi Fan | Kris
Comments: 165
Kudos: 179





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I can't get enough of demon!Suho, I'm sorry for this.

“Be careful there, Yifan,” his mother repeated again, trying to keep the tears at bay, as she took in the sight of her grown baby before he boarded the plane to college. “Call me when you get there and remember to stay in touch, okay?”

He hugged her, kissing her cheek before he pulled away, “I’ll be okay, Mama, it’s just Canada, and I’ll be back home in a few months for spring break.”

She nodded, damping her eyes with the tissue, “I know, but you’re going to be so far away from me.” She cleared her throat, “Just… take care of yourself, study hard, and eat well.”

It was a hard sight to watch her son fade through the crowd of people but she knew that this was what he wanted. The sadness she felt was slowly starting to work on her body again, something she kept from him, and was grateful that it didn’t start acting up while he was still there. She coughed into the tissue, trying not to dwell on the small blood specks when she pulled it away and balled it up.

She stood there in front of the giant glass windows until the plane flew away, sending prayers up to whoever listening that they would keep her son safe.

A month later found Yifan, now going by the name of Kris since it was easier to pronounce for his instructors and classmates, nose-deep in his business communications book. Since his mother had lived in Ontario when he was still young, he barely had any difficulties with the language barriers, so he was getting through his classes fairly easy. He wasn’t in the top with his grades, but he was still above average.

His roommate, Henry Jameson, was pretty popular on the campus and he invited Kris to several of the frat parties. For the most part, Kris stayed in the corner of the parties, nursing his plastic red cup of soda, opting for it instead of the bitter taste of beer. The only thing he had going for him, as his roommate told him, was his height. He stuck out like a sore thumb over the shorter students, and while some of the girls seemed interested, he was too shy to initiate anything.

So the last few times he’d been invited to the parties, he didn’t go. Plus, the strange stares from a few guys made him uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure what it was, but they kept watching him for most of the time at the party.

He thought nothing of it but after those few times, he noticed the odd behavior of his roommate’s too. Almost like he was watching every move that Kris made in the classes and in the front room when Kris came out of his room to go to the kitchen or when he was simply watching TV.

“You ever been with a girl, Kris?” Henry asked, out of the blue, as they watched the basketball game on television. He looked over at the Chinese male as he munched on the chips, waiting for an answer.

He shook his head, feeling a bit pathetic at his response, but it was the truth, “No.”

Henry hummed, nodding almost in understanding, “Is that why you stopped coming to the parties?”

Kris shifted in his seat, grabbing one of the soda cans off the table and popping it open, “Kind of… I’m just… I get really shy around girls. I don’t… I don’t know what to say to them.”

Henry nodded again, shrugging, “That’s understandable, bro, and you should’ve told me, I could’ve given you some pointers, if you wanted.”

Glancing over at the other boy, Kris perked up at that, “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, you’re a handsome guy, not that I’m gay or anything, but handsome and tall as fuck, you should have girls lining up to date you,” Henry teased. “Hell, after you start playing the game, you’re going to make me jealous with all the attention I know you’ll be getting.”

Kris’s cheeks slightly tinted at the compliment, “You don’t mean that.” Henry opened his mouth to protest, but Kris continued, “Besides, I’m the foreign student… I don’t look like you.” Looking over Henry’s blonde hair and blue eyes, they were very different in contrast to Kris’s black hair and dark brown eyes.

Henry shrugged, “Maybe but that doesn’t mean you’re not attractive too. Come to the next party and stick with me, I’ll prove it to you,” he winked.

The next day on the way to class, the group of guys that he was suspicious of ran into Kris in the hallway, shoving his books out of his hands and pushing him into the wall as they passed by. There were some muttering names that they called him as they passed by, and one of his books was kicked further from him when he scrambled to pick them up.

He looked up to glare at them but when one of the guys looked back at him, he quickly averted his gaze at the sight of the man cracking his knuckles at him. He didn’t want any trouble, he didn’t want any kind of hassle at the college. And he was going to be late for class if he didn’t hurry to get his books.

He finally recognized some of the guys from the parties that Henry invited him to, and while Kris was tall, three of them were taller than he was. The look on their faces scared him.

The rest of the day passed by without anymore interference with the group, but he still felt like someone was watching him.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, it was the same mishaps. But it was happening more throughout the day, he was tripped up in the hallway, his books shoved out of his arms countless times, someone poured their drink on his lunch, among several other things. It was the same group of guys. That Friday, he didn’t even get up to go to class that day, opting to shut off his alarm on his phone, and plugged it back to the charger.

He didn’t have but one class that day and his presence wasn’t part of his grade for the class. Plus he could just pull up the assignments on his laptop later and complete them. He wondered what he did to make the group make his life a living hell the last few days.

Henry hadn’t been around lately either, but he kept noticing the weird colored candles that were piled up on the kitchen counter, two containers of salt, and some strange crystals were mixed in the bunch. It never occurred to him that Henry was into some kind of witchcraft but he shrugged it off.

The girl he brought back to the dorm room sometimes seemed like she’d be into some kind of voodoo. Maybe the items were for her?

After dozing on and off for a few hours until that afternoon, Kris finally got out of bed. He went to the bathroom then grabbed a snack from the kitchen, afterwards, he retreated back to his room where he started studying up on the class that he bailed on today. He checked the assignment page on his laptop for the homework that he’d have and began on that.

At least with all the adding, subtracting, and sorting through the information, it kept his mind off the things that happened to him throughout the week. Accounting had a way of doing that, he learned.

He had nothing to do tomorrow either and decided to use the whole Saturday to study as well. He’ll call his mom tomorrow and see how she is.

One thing that Kris noticed in the video chat was that his mother looked more pale than usual, she had dark circles around her eyes, and even though she was excited to talk to him, she appeared tired. The other thing that had Kris pausing was the fact that she was staying with her sister and her husband now. Luckily his uncle never appeared on the screen with his mother.

“How are you doing, sweetie? Classes going okay? Are people being nice to you?”

Kris nodded, “I’m doing good, my roommate is good to me, and they’re being nice,” he left out the events that happened the last week. He didn’t want to worry her. “Are you okay, Mama? You look tired.”

She smiled softly, “I’m okay, just haven’t been sleeping that well. Your aunt says it’s because I’m worrying about my baby too much.”

He chuckled, shaking his head, “You don’t have to worry about me, Mama, I’m okay. I’ll be back home in a few months anyway for spring break.”

“I know, I’ll wait for you then,” she nodded.

“Why are you staying with Aunt Min now?”

She sighed quietly, “The apartment was getting too big for me without you here, and my hours have been cut at the market so your aunt said I could move in with them.”

Kris’s eyes widened, he didn’t like that his mother was staying in the same house as his uncle, but from what she said, she didn’t have a choice in the matter. “I still have the card you gave me from grandfather… do you want me to send you some money?”

She shook her head, “No, Yifan, that money is yours for college, your grandfather wouldn’t want me to use it when he intended on it being for you.”

“But-”

“ _No_ , Yifan,” she stated more sternly, and he knew that was the final response on that subject. Something that he hung his head over.

The next day, Kris noticed that Henry was gone for most of the day. He lazied around Sunday, studying here and there until he got a headache from it. Instead he pulled up his laptop, and started watching an anime series that he had been neglecting when he started college.

He had his headphones on to keep from disturbing Henry with the noises whenever the boy came back to the dorms, so he didn’t hear the different voices in the front room of the dorm. His back was towards the door of his room so he didn’t notice when the door was cracked open. And with him being so caught up in the anime episode, he didn’t notice the object being raised in the air behind him, at least not until it connected with the back of his head. But then all he knew was black.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” a deep voice asked, a little bit of fear mingled in his voice.

“Duh, Gina told me that we had everything we needed for the summoning to work,” that was Henry’s voice, Kris’s brain could recognize, despite how painful his head felt. He had a busting headache and could see a knot on the back of his head where he had been hit. “She said that we needed a virgin, and he said he’s never been with a girl.”

“Too bad we couldn’t have found a girl instead.”

Henry scoffed, laughing softly, “You wouldn’t have a virgin if that was the case then, you horndog.”

“What if the demon wanted a girl? What’s he going to do with a virgin man?”

“I don’t know, drink his blood or something? He’s supposed to be an offering.”

The voices paused for a moment, then a meek voice asked, shaking slightly, “Does that mean he’s going to die? Are we going to be killers?”

“Gina didn’t say anything about that, she just said we needed a virgin offering,” Henry replied, “But we won’t be the murderers, the demon would be… if he kills him. And who would care anyway? A Chinese kid on campus that turns up missing, who would care? He doesn’t have any family here, no one to really investigate.”

Those words made Kris want to whimper, what was going on? Were they going to kill him?

He slowly opened his eyes, vision blurry for a moment, until they cleared, his head still throbbing. There was something in his mouth, cloth-like, and it was tied around his head. And his hands were tied behind his back, his ankles bound together. He tried to shift and when he did, he saw his surroundings, there was white lines drawn around him in an odd shape. Candles were lit at each of the points of the shape, it was a star… a pentagram.

“He’s waking up,” the deep voice commented, making Kris’s gaze raise up from the shape to see the group of boys standing not far from him. They were each holding one of the crystals that he recognized that was on the kitchen counter before. Henry was in the middle of them, in his hands an opened book and one of the crystals.

He frowned, confused. He wanted to ask what they were doing but the cloth gag in his mouth prevented him from talking. The boys, he noticed, were the ones that had been teasing him and mistreating him the past week. Maybe they were watching him for this moment right here?

“Well, he’s quiet and not going anywhere so it doesn’t matter if he’s awake for this or not,” Henry stated, looking back at the open book. “Now if you guys want to shut up and let me start on the spell, it’d be helpful. We don’t have all night.”

The other four didn’t say anything else, keeping quiet as Henry started reading off the strange language from the page in the book. Kris wondered what he was saying and what the words even translated to, but that was the least of his worries when the chalk-lines around him started glowing a brighter white and then turning a cherry red. The flames from the candles started flickering brighter and growing in length until it looked like the flame was going to consume the candle. There was a gust of wind that blew in Kris’s face, causing him to close his eyes and bow down, his body trembling in fear.

Henry kept reading, his voice growing stronger with each word he read off, until it sounded like he was shouting the words. Kris opened his eyes again to see what was happening, the five boys were still standing back away from the pentagram, the candles were ablaze with bright red flames, too red to be a normal colored flame. The chalk-lines were a solid red, matching the flames. There was the distant sound of a whistling noise, it reminded Kris of a tea kettle when the water started to boil, the sound growing closer and closer until finally in the center of the pentagram, just inches away from Kris’s body appeared a red haired being.

It was crouched down at first before it stood to its full height, the being’s hands and chest that was exposed was pale as a ghost, adorning the being’s body was a red suit, matching the chalk-lines and the flames. Everything about the creature was red and ghost white.

Kris didn’t know whether to cry out in fear or stay still and hope the creature wasn’t going to kill him. What Henry said, it seemed like that was the case, he was going to be sacrificed to this being. This _demon_. Whatever it was.

He finally noticed that Henry had stopped reading off the lines, he wondered if the spell was finished now. All five of the boys looked a bit wary. Was this the part where he would be offered up?

“Suhø,” Henry finally spoke up, the red haired being tilted his head slightly, a wicked grin on his face. One that scared Kris and he could see that it had scared the other boys too. “I summoned you to offer you a gift… to grant our wishes.” Henry hesitantly pointed towards Kris, and that had Kris quickly wanting to move away from the being, but he stopped dead in his tracks when the demon looked down at him.

His eyes were glowing a bright blue, an electric blue, and then those dark eyebrows. They were the only things that wasn’t red about the creature. The lids of his eyes were painted red, his lips a bright red. Everything about him was red. Like blood.

The voice that left the demon’s lips was deep, but smooth. It didn’t sound like how Kris would imagine a demon would talk. “So you did. A gift… an _impure_ gift you have given me.” He looked back at Henry, the flames from the candles grew higher, the look in the demon’s eyes was dangerous. Scary. And Kris would hate to be in Henry’s footsteps right now.

“Impure? But he’s a virgin! You require a virgin sacrifice! He hasn’t been with any girls, he told me!” Henry shouted, outraged, and Kris wondered how the boy could even think to raise his voice to someone like this. It was more than obvious that this demon could snap Henry in half without a second hesitation.

The other four boys had slowly started to back up, they looked scared out of their wits, suddenly realizing that maybe this wasn’t a good idea.

The demon glanced back at Kris, and in that moment, he wondered if the demon knew about himself, the look in his eyes as he stared at Kris, almost as if searching his soul. He turned back to Henry, a glare heating up again, the flames flickering as he spoke, “He’s impure. Has been since he was eight years old,” those words made Kris grow cold, the demon knew, “He’s not fit to be my sacrifice,” then his gaze left Henry’s and moved to one of the other boys in the group, that wicked grin crossing his lips again, “but _you_ are.”

Just as he said that, the other four boys quickly dropped their crystals and ran for the door, but it wouldn’t come open. The knob turned like it was unlocked but the door wouldn’t budge, it wouldn’t even crack open. There was something keeping it shut, and no matter how hard they tried to push it open, it wasn’t giving. Henry dropped his crystal and quickly started flipping through the book, muttering about a reversal spell.

All the while, he didn’t notice the shadows that were crossing the wooden floor. They were shaped like arms, a hand shape at the end of them. Each one of them spread out, one moved up Henry’s leg, startling him into dropping the book and just as he was about to move back to get away from the shadow, the hand shaped shadow wrapped around his neck, choking him.

Kris stayed frozen as he watched Henry be slowly choked to death, the same happening to the other four, they were being choked to death. The gasping and struggle to get air to their lungs was all that Kris heard for a moment before that red haired demon turned his attention back to Kris, scaring him into whimpering. He couldn’t beg for his life, he was still gagged and he couldn’t try to make a run for it, he was helpless in that moment.

“Shh, shh, none of that now,” the demon bent down in front of Kris, reaching out his hand even though Kris tried to cower away from him. “I’m not going to hurt you, kid, just going to get your opinion on something.” He reached around Kris’s head and untied the gag, pulling it from the boy’s lips. “There we go.”

“Please don’t kill me,” was the first thing that came from Kris’s mouth, earning a small chuckle from the demon. He didn’t find any of this funny, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to be used as a sacrifice. If it hadn’t been for Henry and the other boys, he would’ve still been in his room, watching his anime show, minding his own business.

“I’m not going to kill you,” Suhø replied, almost as if it were an obvious statement. “Although I can’t say the same about your friends here, but… if they were your friends, they wouldn’t be offering you up as my sacrifice, would they, hmm?” Kris hesitated but it looked like Suhø wanted him to agree with him, so he slowly nodded his head. “I didn’t think so. Well then, Yifan, would you like me to teach them a lesson?”

Kris didn’t know what to say to that. He didn’t want the demon to kill Henry and the boys, maybe turn them into the authorities, but _not_ kill them.

Suhø didn’t wait for an answer this time, instead, he turned back to the boys, standing back up, his hand raising, letting up on the pressure of their throats, giving them time to take a few gulps of air to stay conscious. Henry started to shout but the shadow quickly gripped his throat again.

“I’ll take you, spell-caster,” he looked at Henry, and then at the one boy that he had spoke up earlier, the actual _virgin_ , “and I’ll take your virgin sacrifice. Your souls are mine now, and you’ll get your little wish of fame.” Then he glanced at the other three, “You will have nightmares of this for nights to come, there will not be a peaceful night’s rest for you three for decades to come, you will not forget this, you will not forget me. You will cower for all your days when you see me, see him,” he pointed to Kris, “ ** _ **You will know no peace.**_** ”

Everything blacked out once those words were uttered.


	2. Chapter Two

The blaring of the alarm clock is what had Kris stirring from his sleep, he jumped up, head still hurting, but he couldn’t remember why. He looked around himself to find that he was in his bed, in his pajamas, and everything was as he left it in the room on most nights. He frowned, mind still cloudy, recalling the odd dream he had last night.

He wondered why he dreamed something like that, the anime he was watching did revolve around demons, but nothing like the one in his dream. It was the first time he’d ever dreamed about supernatural demons, he’d had plenty of nightmares, but they revolved around someone else that was just as evil.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and when he brought his hands away from his eyes, they widened at the sight of the marks on his wrists. They were thin reddened lines, like something had been tied around his wrists. Then it dawned on him.

In the dream, he was bound, hands and feet tied together.

Throwing back the blanket, he pulled up the pajama pants to reveal his ankles and there was similar reddened lines around his ankles. They weren’t as visible as the ones on his wrists but they were there. So the dream was real?

There was only one way to find out…

It was Monday, Henry had a late class today. He would still be in bed, being one to lazy around until time to go to class.

Kris got up, head a little woozy when he stood up, but he shook it away, moving to the door of his room and opening. On the way to Henry’s room, he glanced at the kitchen area, and his eyes widened when he saw the candles, the salt, and the crystals were gone.

The image of the bright red flames coming from the candles flashed through his head. Then he remembered that wicked grin that crossed those bright red lips.

He shook his head, stepping up to Henry’s door. He knocked, and didn’t hear anything. He knocked again, this time, he called Henry’s name, but no answer. He turned the knob, finding it unlocked. He pushed the door open, flipping on the lights since Henry always had dark curtains that barely let anything in.

The room was empty. Henry was nowhere to be found.

Kris frowned, wondering where the boy was. The distant sound of his second alarm on his phone had him glancing around the room one more time before flipping off the lights and closed the door. Maybe Henry was at a girl’s dorm? He couldn’t allow himself anymore time on the matter because his first class was only fifteen minutes away from beginning.

He quickly got himself dressed and grabbed something small for breakfast before he was out the door to get to class on time.

The instructor for his first class of the day was late coming into the classroom, so even if Kris had been late to class, it wouldn’t have counted against him. The other students were gathered around their friends’ chairs, chatting, while others were already starting on the assignment that the white board had listed. Kris was one of the students that got started on his assignment.

He didn’t pay much attention to the others around him at first, but he kept getting the odd feeling that someone was staring at him. He looked up from his laptop to glance around the classroom and then his gaze connected with a familiar face. It was one of the boys that had been picking on him the last week, he was also one of the boys that was in his weird dream last night. Tyler Marcus.

When the boy’s gaze met Kris’s, he quickly averted it, ducking down like he was terrified of him. It confused Kris. Why would he get that reaction? Why wasn’t the boy picking on him like he did last week? What changed?

Bits and pieces of the dream flashed through his head again, and he could almost hear a deep voice saying something but it was so distant. Everything dispersed when the instructor’s voice filled the room.

“Good morning, class, sorry I’m late, but we had a small meeting this morning. Two of our students on campus have come up missing. They’re not in my class, but many of you know the two. Henry Jameson and Kyle Manning.”

Kris’s eyes widened at that. That explained why Henry wasn’t in his room this morning. He just thought that he’d spent the night at a girl’s house. While he wondered what happened, there was the haunting voice in the back of his head saying that Henry was dead.

The dream from last night flashed back through his mind. That wicked smile on the demon’s lips, the words he spoke, they were hazy now that Kris tried to remember them. They sounded muffled, distant. Kris tried not to dwell much on the dream, and when he looked over at Tyler, he noticed the kid looked pale in the face, almost like he was about to vomit.

But he was friends with Henry, and Kris assumed, the other boy too. So it was understandable that he would be sad, but the reaction looked more like he was terrified. The boy looked back at Kris once more before turning back to his laptop, head lowered.

Later that day, he was in his dorm room when he received a visit from the police, they were merely asking questions about Henry and when the last time that Kris saw him. Kris answered everything truthfully, even voicing that he thought Henry was just staying with a girlfriend.

The police entered Henry’s room and searched for anything out of place or anything that might help with the case, but found nothing.

“Were you two close?” the officer asked, watching the other officers move about Henry’s room.

Kris shrugged, “We were friends, but not close. He invited me to a few of the parties on campus, and we usually watched the sports games every Sunday.”

The officer nodded, “Can you think of anyone that might’ve had a grudge against him?”

Kris shook his head, “No… he was a popular kid, laid-back… he did have a few girlfriends over the course of the first semester. I just assumed they were just flings.”

“Do you think any of these girls could’ve been vengeful? Maybe jealous?”

“They could’ve been. I hardly met them other than seeing him with them at the parties. There was one girl that came and visited more than the others…” Kris mentioned, remembering the blonde curly haired girl that spent the nights a few times. “Gina… she’s a blonde girl, curly hair. I think she had green eyes? I don’t think I ever heard her last name.”

The officer nodded again, writing the name down in his notepad, “Okay, we’ll get in contact with the administration and find this Gina. We’ll be in touch, thank you for your time, Kris.”

“No problem, I hope you find Henry.”

Before Kris finished up his homework, his phone started blinking with a video chat request from his mother. He answered the call and the first thing she asked him was about the disappearance of his roommate.

“I was worried, I saw the article about your campus on the news, about the missing boy. It had me worried,” she stated. “Are you okay?”

He nodded, “I’m fine, Mama, it came as a shock to all of us on the campus about one of the boys. I didn’t know the other guy but the kid, Henry, was my roommate.”

Her eyes widened, “Have the police talked to you yet? Will you be okay in that dorm room?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, Mama, you taught me to protect myself,” he tried to sound confident in that statement, she did teach him to be cautious once he expressed interest in the college here in Canada. He was sure he could protect himself here, several miles away from the monster he fled from. “They’re thinking it was one of his girlfriends that might’ve done something to him. The other boy, I don’t know about though.”

She frowned but a small humorless smile crossed her lips, “If that’s the case, I’m suddenly glad you haven’t caught any girls’ eye.”

He chuckled softly, “I wouldn’t be the kind to have several girlfriends though, Mama, so you wouldn’t have to worry about that.”

“I know, I taught you better than that,” she agreed. “Okay, I’ll let you get back to your studying, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I keep up with everything to do with your college… I miss my baby.”

“I miss you too, Mama,” Kris replied, noticing the wetness that was starting to fill her eyes. “I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on here.”

After he ended the call, he tried to get back to his homework but he couldn’t focus now. Instead, he looked up the latest news to find the article his mother was talking about. He typed in ‘recent college news’ in the search engine and found several articles.

Apparently his college wasn’t the only one with an incident. He browsed over a few articles, seeing different things about frat boys’ parties getting out of hand in the US, a few colleges were trying to get better protection for female students in Australia, a college student in South Korea being hit by a car, and then a twelve year old genius entering into college in Japan.

Finally he found the one his mother must’ve been talking about. Two missing students from the University of Ontario. He skimmed over the article, reading more into Henry’s part than the other boy, he didn’t know that kid. Apparently from the article, it was reported by a few students from a party that the two were missing.

He wondered about that, because he couldn’t recall Henry going to a party that Friday or Saturday night. And he spent almost all day inside his room Sunday, studying and not studying, he didn’t even remember seeing Henry that day.

Then that dream flashed through his head again, the back of his head still hurt, was a bit sore to the touch when he felt the spot. His wrists still had those thin red lines, as did his ankles. He couldn’t remember what happened to him to cause those marks, other than the actions that happened in his dream.

Was the dream real? And if it was… was that the reason why Henry and the other boy were missing?

He tried to think harder to remember what the demon in the dream was saying but the harder he thought, the more it muddled out. All he could clearly remember was that wicked grin, those sharp teeth, and those piercing blue eyes. The rest of it was all red, a bright bloody red.

**_**A week later…** _ **

**__ **

There had been no leads on Henry’s case, nor the other boy, Kyle. The two boys’ faces were plastered over the campus on fliers with the question above them ****‘Have you seen me?’****. After the first day that the police searched Henry’s dorm room, a few members of the cleaning crew came in and started packing up Henry’s belongings to send to his family. The police had what little things they needed for evidence, so it was all clear for them to clean out the room and have it available for the next student that came along.

Kris would be getting a new roommate. While he had been a bit lonely since Henry wasn’t around now, it was peaceful. He also noticed that the other three boys that were teasing him before always turned and practically ran the other direction when they saw Kris in the hallway or the cafeteria. He wondered why they had that reaction, but they looked terrified every time they saw him.

The boy that shared his class always made sure to avoid any eye-contact with Kris. It was almost as if he had the plague and they were doing whatever they could to avoid catching it.

One thing that Kris had noticed over the last week was the odd dreams he had. There was the distant sound of a deep voice in his dreams, too muffled, too far away to understand anything that the voice was saying, but everything in his dreams was a bright red.

His dream last night was the only one that was different. It was still red, but the red was moving, like a flame, there was the distant voice in the dream like always, but it was mingled with pained screams. He startled awake when he heard a deep laugh slowly fill his ears, but looking around, no one was in his room.

A few minutes later, his alarm started blaring, dispersing any remainders of the dream. The marks on his wrists and ankles had faded, the sore spot on his head wasn’t hurting anymore. Other than the dreams and the missing roommate, his life was practically back to normal.

Until class that morning.

Like the morning that class was informed that Henry was missing, his instructor was late to class. It was the typical morning for everyone else while waiting for the instructor to finally show up. It was almost fifteen minutes into the class when the door finally opened. Kris looked up from his laptop and his eyes widened at the sight of the other person that stood beside the instructor.

That red hair. Flaming bright red hair.

The image of the demon from his dream flooded his mind. The red hair, the red suit, the red lips, the red aura around him, everything was red.

But this individual wasn’t in red, he was dressed like a normal college student. A bit dork-ish, if Kris could comment with the blue sweater vest, the white long-sleeve button-down, and the brown slacks. The bright red hair was styled differently than the demon’s, it was flat, neatly done. Other than the red hair, the guy would’ve screamed ‘ _dweeb’_.

The other thing that Kris noticed was the eyes. They were dark, and slanted. Like Kris’s. He wasn’t Canadian. Or least, not originally.

“Class, we have a new late-term student with us. This is Junmyeon Kim, make him feel welcomed,” his instructor stated, then waved towards the empty chairs, “Take a seat anywhere that’s available.”

The red haired boy bowed slightly towards the instructor before looking up at the class, at the empty seats. His gaze met Kris’s, and then shifted to the empty chair at Kris’s table. No one ever wanted to sit beside Kris in his classes, one thing that he was crossed about. He liked the extra space, but then it always made him feel like an outsider too.

Whatever had discouraged everyone else from sitting with Kris didn’t discourage this student. He made his way to the seat as the instructor started on the lesson. Kris watched the red haired male as he tried to listen to the instructor, but something else caught his eye.

The boy that shared his class, Tyler Marcus, looked absolutely terrified as his gaze watched every move that the red haired student took. It looked almost as if the kid had seen a ghost. And then when the red haired student sat down beside Kris, the new kid glanced towards Tyler and something happened with their gazes. Tyler’s eyes widened and the whimper was lost to the instructor’s voice going over the lesson with the rest of the class, but Kris heard it.

Kris looked over at the new student beside him, it was just a normal glance. But there must’ve been something in that dark stare that caused Tyler to react the way he did. The red haired student, Junmyeon, looked at Kris, slightly smiling.

“I hope you don’t mind me picking this seat,” that deep, smooth voice said quietly. And it sounded oddly familiar to Kris’s ears. “The instructor already said it but I’m Junmyeon.”

Kris nodded, introducing himself, “Yifan, but everyone calls me Kris… you can call me by either. Not many people here can pronounce my real name correctly.”

The red haired student chuckled softly, “ _Yifan._ That’s not too hard to pronounce.”

Laughing quietly, Kris couldn’t help but agree, but it was his name, of course it wasn’t a feat for him. And apparently not for Junmyeon either. “Your surname is Kim, you’re Korean?”

“Mhm,” he nodded, “I am. From South Korea though, not North. Yifan… that’s a Chinese name?”

“Yeah, I’m from Guangzhou, but I’ve been back and forth between here and China throughout my childhood with my mom.”

“Just your mom?”

Kris nodded, “Never knew my father.” The instructor was writing the subjects on the whiteboard now, Kris glanced back at Tyler to see the kid still keeping his head down. He looked back at Junmyeon, “Are you here alone or with family?”

“Alone, my family is still back in Seoul. You?” Junmyeon asked.

“Alone too,” Kris replied, looking back at the instructor now as he started writing down the subjects that were listed and began making notes about the comments the instructor was making on each subject.

He thought he heard Junmyeon mutter something about _‘not anymore’_ but when he looked over at the red haired boy, he was busy writing down the subjects in his notebook too. There was still a strange feeling that came from the boy. Kris tried not to stare too much at him, but the red hair kept putting that demon from his dreams in his mind.

He still wondered what it was about the red haired boy that sent Tyler into a frenzy.


	3. Chapter Three

Kris trudged back to his dorm room after his last class, tired and ready for something to eat and some rest. When he entered the dorm room, he noticed a second pair of shoes in the shoe rack that he had at the entrance of the dorm room. That confused him, because as far as he knew, none of the other students that he knew used a shoe rack. As odd as it was, they wore their shoes in through their living quarters.

He knew that a student would eventually come along and take Henry’s old room, but he didn’t expect it to be so soon. There still hadn’t been any updates about Henry’s disappearance either.

On the way to his room, he froze when he saw the red head in the kitchen. It was _him_. Kim Junmyeon. They’d only shared three classes that day, the last class he had, he didn’t have a red haired boy by his side. The red haired boy was getting a drink of water, his back towards Kris.

There was still something about the boy that left an odd feeling with Kris. A mysterious aura that Kris couldn’t put his finger on.

The thing that kept running through his head was the red haired demon from his dream. The red haired boy resembled him so closely, the facial features, the lips, the nose, the eyes… the only difference was Junmyeon’s eyes was dark brown, like Kris’s, not those piercing bright blue eyes.

“Oh, hey,” Junmyeon was surprised to see Kris when he turned around, the glass of water in his hand. “I didn’t know you’d be my roommate…” then the red head laughed softly, “I figure I should’ve expected it with the shoe rack at the door.”

Kris shrugged, amused, “True. I was confused when I saw the extra pair of shoes at the door, but it makes sense now.”

“I hope you don’t mind me being your roommate,” Junmyeon replied. “I heard what happened to the last boy that was here… have they still not had any luck finding him?”

Kris shook his head, “I don’t mind. Although I’m not much company, I study all the time. And I haven’t heard anything else about the case with Henry.”

Junmyeon hummed, “I’m the same, study all the time. I won’t be much of a bother.”

Later that night, Kris was nose-deep into his accounting book. He hadn’t heard a peep from Junmyeon the whole evening, but he was so focused on his homework that if Junmyeon had made any noises, he didn’t hear them. He sighed to himself when he finally finished the current part of his assignment, pushing the book away from him, and lying his head down on his crossed arms on his desk.

He didn’t intend to fall asleep, just rest his sore eyes for a few minutes before continuing to the next part of his homework. But his tired mind slowly gave way to sleep.

The dream he entered was odd.

“Your grades are truly impressive,” the deep voice spoke up, drawing Kris’s attention. He was sure he was dreaming, but he was in his chair, had his head resting on his arms on his desk. His head rose and turned to the direction of the voice, eyes widening when he saw who it was that was sprawled on his bed. “Hello again.”

The red haired demon was propped up on his side on Kris’s bed, a paper in his hand as he looked over it. One of his legs was raised up in a crook, displaying his front side, the red blazer of his suit was open, abs and pale skin on full display. In that bright red suit, it was the only other thing that stood out against Kris’s dark blue comforter.

Kris grew very still under that bright blue gaze, the smirk slowly crossing the demon’s face wasn’t helping either.

“You don’t have to fear me, darling, you didn’t summon me like your little roommate did,” the demon replied, he moved to sit up on the bed. “I’ve decided to keep an eye on you.”

“W-Why?” Kris couldn’t stop the question from coming from his lips. He was scared right now, pieces of the dream slowly started coming back to him. And the one thing that made him scared was flash of this demon choking Henry and the other boys. He could do that to Kris.

The demon tilted his head to the side, “Why not? I’ve got nothing else to do. The little spell-caster and the virgin were enough of a meal for me for now.”

Kris choked at that, eyes wide, “Spell-caster? _Henry?_ But… that was… that was a dream!”

The demon smiled in amusement, chuckling softly, “I wanted you to think it was a dream, much like how you’re thinking _this_ is a dream, but he summoned me, _Suh_ _ø_ , and he got what he wanted.” He shrugged, “His face is plastered all over the news and campus, he’s famous. Maybe not his idea of fame.”

Those words had Kris pinching himself, winching at the pain. He wasn’t dreaming? But he could remember falling asleep on his desk, when had he woken up? Or did he even fall asleep at all?

“This isn’t a dream?”

The demon stood up, and Kris sunk further back into his chair when the red head edged closer to him, he whimpered when the demon came to stand right in front of his chair, towering over him. The angle made Kris feel small, but he knew that if he stood up, he’d be taller than this being, it just didn’t help him build any courage in that moment. No, he didn’t believe anything would as those bright blue eyes stared at him.

The only thing that broke his gaze was the tip of the tongue that came out to run along the red bottom lip.

“This isn’t a dream, _Yifan._ ” The way that the demon said his name, it sounded familiar, the same way… the same way that Junmyeon spoke his name earlier. Those bright blue eyes watched his face, watched every emotion that crossed his face. Fear, curiosity, and confusion. He leaned down, hands coming to rest on the arms of Kris’s chair, trapping him there, “I told you not to fear me, Yifan, we’ll get along just fine.”

“You’re here to stay?” Kris squeaked, trying to avoid the blue gaze, but it was hard since Suhø was right there in his face.

“For now. You’ve got some interesting things going on in your life. I could see it all when you were inside my pentagram, the depths of your soul,” his red tipped finger found Kris’s chin and brought his gaze back up to meet his. Kris wanted to look away but the finger under his chin wouldn’t let go of him, his gaze connecting with the demon’s blue eyes again. Those eyes shifted between Kris’s, looking like they were searching for something behind Kris’s eyes. “Something that the spell-caster was wrong about… your impurity-”

“Don’t,” Kris stopped him, finally finding the strength to stop the demon from speaking further. He did not want to draw up old memories. Not now. Not ever. That was something that he’d never told anyone, never wanted anyone to know about. “Please, don’t.”

Something in those blue eyes softened, the red lips turned downwards in a frown, “It wasn’t your fault, but you blame yourself. Why?”

Kris shook his head, eyes dropping from the demon’s, “Stop, please, don’t bring that up.” Then it dawned on him, a means of escaping this, escaping being trapped here by those pale hands on his chair. If this wasn’t a dream, then he could shout for help. Junmyeon was just in the other room. Surely he would come if Kris shouted for him.

Just as he tried to, that red tipped finger pressed his lips together. “Shh, you want the dead boy? I can call him for you.” He disregarded Kris’s confused expression, turning towards the bedroom door, “ ** _ **Junmyeon, come here.**_** ”

“Dwead bwoy?” Kris tried to question what Suhø said, but the finger on his lips wasn’t letting up, making his words muddled.

Suhø nodded, tapping Kris’s lips with his finger once before pulling his hand away, straightening up, “Yes, _dead boy_. I needed a vessel if I’m going to follow you around here on campus, and I’d hate for you to look like you were going crazy with talking to yourself if people couldn’t see me. Why do you think I sat beside you in every class?”

The bedroom door to Kris’s room opened and in came the red haired student that he’d just met that day. But there was something off about his eyes. The warm brown eyes that Kris saw earlier that day was gone, they were vacant. _Empty_. He looked like a shell of the student he was earlier.

“What’s wrong with him?” the words fell out of his mouth, the fact that there was a demon in front of him forgotten for concern about Junmyeon.

Suhø glanced at Kris before waving Junmyeon over to sit on the bed, the student walking over and obeying without a second thought. Junmyeon didn’t raise his head, didn’t meet Kris’s gaze, he acted like a complete zombie, just staring at a spot on the floor. “He’s dead, that’s all that’s wrong with him.”

Kris looked up at him for a moment then returned to stare at Junmyeon in concern, “But earlier… he was quiet in class, yeah, but he was different…” he didn’t know how to explain it. But this person that looked like Junmyeon… wasn’t Junmyeon. “He’s like a zombie.”

“Well, in a sense, he is one,” the demon shrugged, sitting down next to Junmyeon, “I’ve already eaten his soul, but I can still breathe some life in him to keep him from rotting and assuming a regular life… for the most part.” Kris’s gaze shifted between the two, still confused, “The reason why he was different earlier is because I was inhabiting his body, giving him a bit more character.”

“So I was actually talking to you? But you were in his body?”

“Mhm, _watch_ ,” Suhø’s body started phasing out and entering Junmyeon’s body, the student sucked in a deep breath, eyes wide, his body shivered until those dark brown eyes turned that bright blue for a split second, and then they were back to the dark brown color.

The voice was Junmyeon’s again, “I can be one with him. It helps that he resembles me so much.” A smile spread across Junmyeon’s face, his hands coming up to cup his face, “I liked his body so much, and he was the most recent that sold his soul to me, I simply stole him away before his body was cremated.”

Kris stared at him, eyes scanning over Junmyeon’s body. It didn’t look like a dead boy, and now that Suhø was back in that body, he didn’t look like a zombie anymore. “Did you kill him too? Like Henry?”

Junmyeon’s head shook in a negative, “No, he was hit by a car, you probably heard about it,” he shrugged, “He was on his way to class and a speeding car ran the red light. He’ll be one of the reasons for better laws against speeding in school zones.”

It dawned on Kris that he had seen the headline about that story when his mother called about the article she saw of Henry and the other boy missing.

“Oh…” Kris paused, “I’m not going to sell my soul to you… if that’s why you’re going to follow me around for.”

Junmyeon’s shoulder shrugged, “That’s not why I’m going to follow you around. Like I said, you interest me, your whole soul’s story interest me.” He nodded towards the space over Kris’s shoulder, “So does your pathetic excuse for a guardian angel.”

Kris looked over his shoulder and didn’t see anything, he looked back at Suhø in Junmyeon’s body. “Guardian angel?”

“You can’t see him, he doesn’t want to be seen. And I can imagine it’s because he’s too pathetic to show his face,” Junmyeon’s voice was almost a growl as he glared over Kris’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t want to show my face either if I couldn’t even protect my charge.” Kris’s head tilted to the side, but Junmyeon’s gaze returned to his. “I’m glad you’re calmer now, like I said, no reason to fear me. You should finish up your homework and go onto sleep. Early classes tomorrow.”

Junmyeon stood up from the bed, bowing slightly, and then leaving Kris’s room, closing his door behind him. Kris watched after him, staring at the door for the longest time, wondering what just happened. He pinched himself again, making sure he wasn’t sleeping because everything that just happened felt like a dream.

He glanced at the clock on his bedside table, seeing the time, and while it was late, curiosity got the best of him. He got up from his desk chair, slipping out of his room, and made his way to Henry’s old room, now belonging to the dead boy, Junmyeon. The light was off in the room, he wondered if the demon was going to sleep in Junmyeon’s body tonight or… how did that even work, he wondered.

It would’ve been wrong to enter anyone else’s room without knocking, but does opening the door to a dead boy’s bedroom really count as wrong? He twisted the knob, the door unlocked, and pushed it open. Lying perfectly still on the bed with his eyes closed was Junmyeon. He didn’t stir or wake upon Kris’s entrance. His chest didn’t even rise and fall like he was breathing, but then again, why would he? He was dead.

“I told you to finish up your homework, Yifan,” Suhø’s voice filled the room, the being appearing in the chair at the desk, his legs propped up on the desk, and in his hands was the opened book that Kris recognized Henry reading from before all this crazy stuff happened. “But you humans are always so curious.”

The glance that Suhø gave him looked like a disappointed parent catching their kid with their hand in the cookie jar. It made Kris feel guilty for some odd reason. “I… I’m sorry. I was just-”

“Curious, I know,” Suhø shrugged, licking his finger before he turned the page, “Like I said, humans are naturally curious. How do you think I scored that kid?” He nodded towards Junmyeon’s still body.

“But…” Kris glanced back and forth between Suhø and Junmyeon’s body, “I just have so many questions.”

Suhø nodded understandingly, “Of course you do, but you also have questions on your accounting assignment that need answers. I’m not going anywhere, you’ll get to ask your questions tomorrow.”

Kris slowly nodded, sparing one glance back at Junmyeon’s body, “G-Good night.”

A small chuckle left Suhø’s lips, “Good night, darling.”

The next morning when Kris woke up, it was to his blaring alarm again, and he wasted no time in gathering up his books and throwing on his clothes to dash out the door of his bedroom. He caught a glimpse of his red haired roommate, which he muttered a small ‘good morning’ to, and continuing onto his class. The only thing on his half-sleep mind was getting to class on time.

Once he got to class, he was more awake and then he realized that he’d forgotten to grab something for breakfast. He was about to slump down on his desk as he waited for the instructor to get to class when a bright red apple appearing in front of his face stopped him. It was in the grasp of a pale hand that led up to a light pink sweater sleeve and then Kris saw the owner of the pale hand. Junmyeon.

“You forgot breakfast, I hope this gets you through class until you can get something more _filling_ ,” Junmyeon smiled at him, and the small flip that Kris’s stomach did at that smile was just his stomach wanting food, he was sure of it.

His cheeks lightly tinted, he took the apple from him, “Th-Thank you.”

Junmyeon sat down in the chair beside Kris, “You need to start eating more for breakfast, Yifan.”

Kris took a bite of the apple, hurriedly trying to eat the apple before the instructor arrived, “I can’t, I have limited funds… my grandfather sends me allowances every month and they’re only so much.”

“I think I can take care of that,” Junmyeon mumbled, holding out his empty palm in front of Kris again, confusing the black haired boy and causing him to pause in chewing. He wondered if Junmyeon wanted him to hold his hand but then his eyes widened when another apple appeared in his hand. “I can do more than just apples, you know, but I don’t think you’d want a full course meal on your desk when your instructor is about five minutes away.”

It finally occurred to Kris that he’d forgotten the events that happened last night. He’d forgotten that the person that sat next to him right now was a demon possessing a dead boy’s body. He should be freaking out again, he should be screaming, running away, but the instructor was coming through the door now, and he had more important things to worry about.

Like the exam that was coming up.


	4. Chapter Four

It was a bit odd to have an almost shadow following him around on campus, but at the same time, it put Kris at ease. He wasn’t alone now. It was a bit odd that it was a demon inhabiting the body of Junmyeon, but the thought alone was comforting enough. And it wasn’t like the company wasn’t enjoyable.

The smile that crossed Junmyeon’s face did something to his insides every time. But he tried not to dwell on it.

Kim Junmyeon was an attractive male. Despite the minor fact that he was dead, the boy was still handsome. Dark eyes that flash bright blue every so often at Kris, those pale pink lips, and that little nose. He was gorgeous… just like Suhø was.

The demon was right the night before, the two looked so similar. He wondered how it ended up like that. Unless the demon simply took on Junmyeon’s appearance when the boy sold his soul to him. He could understand if that was the case, he just wondered what the demon looked like beforehand, if that were the case.

Was he a big scaly beast with horns? Other than his red hair twisted up to resemble horns. Was he a red beast? Since the demon seemed to love red that much, to have his hair, his suit, his makeup, his lips, his nails, they were all red. All he could imagine was the little red devils that people drew to represent the actual devil.

But if that were the case, was Suhø really just Satan himself?

“You still aren’t sleeping well, Mama?” Kris asked, worrying his lip at the sight of his mother’s darker circles under her eyes. She was still a sickly pale in the image in the video chat. And he made sure it wasn’t due to the lighting setting on his phone the last time they spoke.

She shook her head hesitantly, “I haven’t, sweetie, it’s just nerves, I promise. Nothing to worry about, I’m going back to the doctor tomorrow to ask for something to help me sleep.”

It still felt like she wasn’t telling him everything, but he knew that if it was anything she didn’t want to tell him, she wouldn’t. “Okay…”

“Have you heard anything else about your missing roommate? There hasn’t been anything else in the news about it, no leads or anything.”

Kris shook his head, “No, I haven’t heard anything. They’ve already let another student move in too.” He left out the fact that his new roommate was a demon possessed dead boy, his mother didn’t need to know about that. He didn’t think anyone needed to know about that… he wish he didn’t.

“Oh? Are they a nice kid? They’re not being mean to you, right?”

Kris chuckled softly, shaking his head again, “No, Mama, he’s-”

The door to his room opening stopped him from continuing, Junmyeon stuck his head in, in his hands was a plate of what looked like sushi rolls but they weren’t sliced yet. “Hey, Yifan? I made some kimbap if you want any.”

Kris glanced towards his laptop where his mother was surprised by the sight of the bright red haired boy, then back to Junmyeon, “Um, sure.” He waved Junmyeon over, “Let me introduce you to my Mama.” Kris turned back to the laptop, “Mama, this is Junmyeon,” then he glanced back at Junmyeon, “Junmyeon, this is my Mama.”

Junmyeon smiled and bowed his head slightly at the older woman on the laptop, “Hello, I’m Yifan’s new roommate.”

She bowed slightly to him, eyes still looking at his hair, but then she looked back at Kris, “Junmyeon… that’s not a Canadian name.”

Kris shook his head, “He’s originally from South Korea.”

“I’m here, much like Yifan is, studying aboard,” Junmyeon still had that smile on his face that made Kris’s insides feel odd. And he could see that the smile was charming his mother too. A smile matching his crossing her face. “How are you, Ms. Wu?”

“I’m good, but please, call me Mama Wu,” Kris’s eyes widened at that, looking between the two, “I’ll go ahead and let you go, Yifan, looks like he’s made you some dinner so you can go ahead and eat.”

“Okay, Mama, I’ll talk to you later. Try to get some sleep, yeah?”

“I will. Good night, baby.”

He exited the video chat app on his laptop, closing the laptop. He turned back to Junmyeon, the boy handed him the plate. It looked like a sushi roll that was uncut, but now that it was closer, he could see that it had been sliced, it just wasn’t pulled apart and displayed like sushi rolls were. He could also see small parts of meat that looked like beef, some vegetables, and something yellow like eggs.

“It’s kimbap,” Junmyeon smiled, “A popular food in Junmyeon’s country, I conjured it using his memory of it.” The way that Suhø in Junmyeon’s body kept referring to bits and pieces of Junmyeon’s life in almost third-person was still odd. “Have a slice, if you like it, you can have the whole thing.”

Junmyeon took a seat on Kris’s bed, it seemed like that was his favorite thing to do now after Suhø moved in. Just as Kris picked up one of the slices and started eating it, Junmyeon’s body did a full shiver, his head slumping as the red haired demon phased into existence beside the human body. He brushed off his suit sleeve as if it had dust on it.

“Your mother is beautiful, I can see where your looks come from,” Suhø commented, a bit pleased with the fact that Kris was reaching for another slice of the kimbap.

He shrugged, chewing and swallowing his mouthful, “That’s the only person I can think of that looks like me, I never knew what my father looked like.” He ate another slice, mumbling another the bite, “This is good.”

Suhø smiled, “I’m glad you like it.” He nodded towards the pile of books on Kris’s desk, “I’m assuming that since you were talking with your mother, you’re finished with your homework for tonight?”

Kris shrugged, “More or less. I don’t have an early class tomorrow and the homework for tonight isn’t due till Thursday so I have tomorrow to complete everything.”

“Alright, perfect time for you to start asking your questions, if you want,” Suhø’s eyes sparkled in anticipation. He knew some of the questions that Kris wanted to ask just by the look in the boy’s eyes, but he wanted him to voice them.

The Chinese boy swallowed the bite, “Are they going to find Henry and Kyle’s bodies?”

Suhø shook his head, “No. As long as their faces are plastered on buildings with the question of _‘Have you seen me?’_ there’s still hope that they’ll be found. So in a way, they’ll still be famous. Which is what they wanted.”

“When they wanted to sacrifice me?” Suhø nodded. “Is that why Henry asked if I had been with any girls before that night?”

“It is, he wanted to find out if you were a virgin. The girl he’d been talking to gave him this book,” he lifted his hand up and the book that he was reading the other night appeared. The cover of it was purple, had odd symbols across it. He flipped open the book, “the spell for myself calls for a virginal sacrifice.”

“How was he able to summon you if I was in the pentagram instead of Kyle?” _The actual virgin that was in the room_.

“The virgin sacrifice was for my services, if he hadn’t had a virgin in that room, none of them would’ve gotten their wish,” Suhø shrugged, “He could’ve summoned me all day long, but I wouldn’t have granted any of his wishes without the virgin sacrifice.”

“Would you have killed me if I was a virgin?” Kris murmured quietly, fear creeping into him at the question because it still reminded him that this was an otherworldly being right here on his bed. And he still hadn’t forgotten that there was a dead boy sitting right beside him, staring blankly at the floor.

Suhø hummed, “I don’t think you want me to answer that, Yifan, sorry.”

Kris gulped hard, suddenly losing his appetite for the rest of the kimbap now. He slid the plate onto his desk, then hesitantly turned his gaze back to Suhø, “Are you eventually going to kill me? Or eat my soul?”

“I told you that I’m already satisfied with those two boys’ souls, and then you have to throw in little Junmyeon’s soul here too,” Suhø reached over to run his fingers through Junmyeon’s hair, cooing almost like a mother at her child. “His death was just last week.”

“But you’ll get hungry again, won’t you?” Kris was a bit confused about the wording, was hungry the right word for what Suhø does? He did say ‘eat souls’ so did his stomach function like a normal person’s?

Suhø chuckled softly, “I will, but usually by that time, someone will pick up this book and summon me again for some petty reason.” He shrugged, “Rest assured, Yifan, you’re safe from my hunger.”

“So why are you sticking around with me? I’m pretty boring… if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Like I told you, your soul is interesting to me-” Kris had to stop him, recalling very well what the demon meant, and what he was implying about last night. He didn’t want to talk about that, not now, not ever.

“If this is about what my uncle did to me, I don’t want to talk about it.”

Suhø sat up on the bed, lying the purple spell book down Kris’s pillow, “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but you see… Yifan, I am the _Ninth_ Prince of Hell. The souls of those like your uncle, are what I torture for all eternity. We have other realms, of course, that deal with murderers, liars, thieves, rapists, but I deal with the souls of individuals that hurt _children_.” Suhø stopped for a moment, seeing the way that Kris looked somewhat interested but still unwilling to talk about what happened to him. “When I saw the contents of your soul when you were inside my pentagram, I could see the scar that it left on you.”

“That’s why I don’t want to talk about it,” Kris’s head was lowered, bangs hiding his eyes. He shook his head, “With what you said about you being the prince of one of the realms of Hell, other than maybe vengeance against my uncle, why would you be sticking around here with me?”

“Because in a few weeks, you’re going to need me. You’re going to need someone, and if I’m not here, you’re going to be all alone, and I don’t want you to be for that.”

Kris looked up at that, seeing the strange stare that Suhø had, his eyes kept drifting to over Kris’s shoulder, a glare working up but when Suhø looked back at Kris, the glare dispersed. He’d done the same last night when he spoke of Kris’s guardian angel, what was it about the guardian angel that made Suhø so angry?

“But…” Kris started, confused by what Suhø said, shaking away the thoughts about his guardian angel for the moment, “Why would you care if I was alone? Aren’t you… well, you’re a demon, aren’t you supposed to be evil?”

Suhø laughed softly, eyes glinting in amusement, he shook his head, “Yifan, Heaven and Hell are not good and evil, as much as the Church would like to say they are, we’re not. I am not evil, I am the consequence of a life lived wrongly. Heaven is the reward for living a just life, we’re two sides of the same coin.

“You could say that I’m evil for what I did to Henry and Kyle, but at the same time, they _did_ summon me, and I took what measures I thought were necessary.”

“But they’re both dead?” Kris gawked.

“ _I took what measures I thought were necessary,_ ” Suhø repeated, shrugging. “Look at it this way, if your uncle was here in Junmyeon’s spot and I’m right here in the room, who would you say was the evil person?” Kris hated that question as soon as Suhø asked it.

To any other person, the red haired demon with the crazy eyes and makeshift horns on his head would be the evil one. His uncle looked like a regular man. Tall like Kris, a normal stature, almost the same age as his mother. His aunt thought she was the luckiest woman when they married, he was a handsome man. And he looked like an ordinary man. But to Kris, he was anything but ordinary.

Suhø answered for Kris, already knowing what Kris was thinking, but the boy was still quiet, “He would, of course.” Suhø stood up, stepping up to Kris’s chair, he reached out and brushed the boy’s bangs from his eyes, tucking a few strands behind his ear, “Because you know what that man has done to you, and you know what I have done _for_ you, so far anyway,” he brought his finger down to Kris’s chin, lifting it so that Kris would meet his gaze, “I’m here with you so you won’t be alone, you can thank me when everything is over with.”

Kris blinked, pulling back away from Suhø’s touch, he was surprised when the demon let his hand fall back by his side, “But didn’t you say I have a guardian angel with me? I wouldn’t be alone if they’re here with me, right?”

Suhø’s gaze rose over Kris’s shoulder again, glaring and almost snarling, but the glare softened when he looked back at Kris, “If you’d rather have the one that was by your side when he let what happened to you at eight years old happen, then I could just go ahead and head back home right now. He won’t ever show his face to you though, will you, _Luhan_?”

Kris looked over his shoulder, seeing nothing again, he rethought Suhø’s response though. His guardian angel really allowed his uncle to do that to him? But were guardian angels supposed to be able to intervene in those situations? He’d seen a few things about people talking about their guardian angels helping them keep from getting hit by a car, helping them through different trials, and other things… but he chalked that all up to just being a lucky individual.

“I thought guardian angels couldn’t intervene…”

“That’s what they’d like you to think,” Suhø all but growled, eyes flicking back to over Kris’s shoulder, “But think, anything could’ve happened that day to have stopped your uncle. Your aunt could’ve came home earlier from work, she’d been let off early before, it could’ve been that day, your mother might’ve not been called into work on her day off, and that could’ve prevented it. Your uncle could’ve simply fallen asleep in his chair while watching television like he did so many nights before. Anything could’ve happened to stop that.” He waved towards where Kris’s guardian angel was, “And this little fluttery being could’ve let it happen to keep that monster from touching you, but he _didn’t_.”

The more that Suhø spoke of that time, the more the memories tried to flash through Kris’s mind. He quickly shook them away, reaching up to clutch at Suhø’s blazer, shaking his head. He didn’t know that there was tears in his eyes until he felt the streak of one running down his cheek.

“Please, st-stop,” his hand was covered by that pale hand with the red fingernails. “I don’t want to remember that day, please.”

Suhø patted his hand softly, his other hand came to cup Kris’s cheek, “I know you don’t, Yifan, and I’m sorry to bring any of these memories up.” He wiped at Kris’s cheek, thumbing away the tears, he looked down at Kris, “It’s getting late, rest now, darling.” There was a faint glow emitting from Suhø’s hand against the side of Kris’s face, the boy’s eyelids slowly falling shut, he fell limp against Suhø’s chest.

A bright golden orb appeared behind Kris’s chair, the outline of a body slowly phasing into existence. Two large white feathery wings expanding out behind the golden haired being. It was cloaked in a solid white gown, a golden sash around his waist.

“I couldn’t intervene, Prince Suhø,” the being stated as soon as he fully appeared, knowing that Kris was fully asleep now. “You know that Our Father works in mysterious ways, I don’t know the full details but I couldn’t intervene.”

Suhø snarled, mocking the angel, “Of course you couldn’t, Luhan. You and every other useless angel that has let a child suffer. You should be thrown in my lake of fire with the sick bastards that even think of harming a child. You’re practically enablers.”

Luhan shook his head, too cowardly to even think of raising a glare at the demon for what he called him, “We don’t enable, there’s only so much that we’re allowed to do-”

Suhø rolled his eyes, “Yeah, sure. A fucking fluttery little _bird_ that can’t even help his own charge out. And that event isn’t the only tragedy that you’re going to allow to happen to him, is it? I could already see the plans that are laid out for his soul,” he held Kris close to him, his hand finding those long black strands. “You allowed his innocence to be stolen, you allowed it to keep happening until his mother finally landed a job that allowed him to stay _home_ more than be babysat, and you’ll even allow his mother to continue to suffer now, even take his mother away from him.”

The angel’s head lowered, knowing exactly what Suhø was talking about, but he couldn’t stop it from happening. There was only so much that he was allowed to do. Certain things in life were meant to be tests, it’s what he’d always been taught before being given his first charge.

“I can’t… I can’t disobey Our Father, Prince Suhø,” Luhan looked back up at Suhø, “Why are you so interested in my charge? Yifan is a normal human boy.”

Suhø shrugged, looking down at the top of Kris’s head, his red-tipped fingers running through those black strands, “A demon can’t have pity?” He glanced back up at Luhan, still glaring, “Maybe I just want to twist the fates?”

“He won’t give you his soul.”

Suhø chuckled softly, “I wasn’t going to ask for it. You have your outline of his life’s journey, and I have mine, and I see greatness in this boy and I want to indulge in that.”


	5. Chapter Five

**Warning for implied child abuse. Read with caution.**

_The soft sobs filled the bathroom that night as he cowered in the corner of the room, knees pulled up to him, arms wrapped around them. His backside hurt when he shifted and it ju_ _st made him cry harder. His uncle had given up on calling him through the locked door, after Yifan had gotten away from him and ran to the bathroom, locking himself in there._

_He didn’t know how long time had passed, but the whole time, he kept praying and asking whoever was listening that his mother would come and get him soon. He didn’t want to be around his uncle anymore, he didn’t want to be in that house anymore, he wanted to go home. He wanted to be back in the safety of his home. This wasn’t safe here anymore._

_He doesn’t remember how he ended up on the couch, but when he woke up, he wasn’t curled up in the corner of the bathroom anymore, he was on the couch in the living room, the lights were dim, the television playing in the background._

_“Yeah, he took a pretty big hit when he fell. We were just playing, I should’ve known better,” his uncle’s voice came out hushed, making Yifan tense up, but he stayed perfectly still on the couch._

_Then his mother’s voice filled his ears and he felt like he was safe again, “It happens, boys will be boys, was it just his back that hit the table?” He felt her hands gently shake him, to wake him up. His eyes opened and he saw her sitting on the edge of the couch beside him. He quickly moved, ignoring the soreness he felt, and clung to her._

_“I’m thinking so, he kept saying his back hurt,” his uncle explained, “It was the pointed edge that got him.”_

_“Aw, it’s okay, do you want to show me where you hit the table, Yifan?” his mother asked, pulling back to look at him, but he shook his head, lip still wobbling as he clung back to her. “I’m sorry, sweetie, let’s get you on home.”_

_“I’m still sorry, Yizhen, we’ll be more careful next time,” his uncle replied, he almost sounded apologetic to Yifan’s ears, but he knew the man wasn’t. He wasn’t the least bit apologetic when Yifan was crying for him to stop, or when Yifan kept saying that it hurt._

_No, the only time he sounded apologetic was when Yifan had gotten away from him and ran to lock himself in the bathroom._

_Later that night, his mother asked him about what happened, and more or less, Yifan relayed what he heard his uncle telling her about what happened. They were playing, running around in the apartment, and Yifan had hit the edge of the table. He wanted to tell her but at the same time, the words that his uncle told him kept ringing through his head._

_If he had told anyone else what happened between the two, his mother and aunt would be very mad at him. His aunt would be angry and say that Yifan was lying, and it could end up with his uncle leaving his aunt. And the two were very happy, his uncle convinced Yifan that he wouldn’t want his aunt to be unhappy if he were to leave her because of what Yifan said._

_And as an innocent eight year old, he didn’t want to see his aunt unhappy or have his mother and aunt angry at him._

It didn’t stop the handful of times it happened again over the span of the two years that his uncle babysat him. But the older man kept Yifan believing that if he told anyone about the things that happened between closed doors, that it would lead to bad things happening. His mother and aunt would be very hurt if he told them.

So Yifan kept quiet, and was just relieved when his mother found a better job with different hours, and he was older now. He could cook for himself and take care of himself, his mother didn’t have to rely on his uncle to watch him after he got out of school.

He never spoke of the events again, just tried to bury them as far away in his mind as he could. The few family events that he did see his uncle again, he just made sure that he was never alone in the room with the man, and everything worked out.

It still didn’t help with the deep wound that it had inflicted on him. He never could get pass the feeling of guilt for it happening to him either. He knew it wasn’t his fault, he knew what kind of man his uncle was, he knew how to protect himself now, but he couldn’t stop the way that he felt.

That morning when he woke up, he felt sweaty, drained. The dream that he had was more of a trip down memory lane. An unwanted trip. He chalked it up to the fact that Suhø had practically drew the memory up with all his questioning last night. He could still feel the fear in his bones, like he was back in that body of his eight year old self, listening to his uncle calling for him through the door.

He sat up in bed, looking around to find the red haired demon wasn’t anywhere around. He threw the blankets off, switching off his alarm since he didn’t have any early classes today, and got up, stretching when he stood up. The sun was coming through his curtains now, lighting up his room.

His desk had been cleaned up, sorted neatly, but he couldn’t remember doing any of that. He couldn’t remember getting into bed either, or changing out of his jeans and into his pajama pants. This was the second time that he woke up, dressed for bed, and not remembering how he got there.

It was something to do with Suhø, he knew it, but did the demon dress him, himself?

Shaking his head, he didn’t dwell on it, he supposed the gesture was nice. It would’ve been uncomfortable to sleep in jeans. He didn’t hear any noises coming from the front room, and didn’t see anyone when he exited his bedroom to head to the bathroom. After he came back out, Junmyeon was seated on the couch, the television was playing, but Junmyeon’s stare was blank as he stared at the television.

It was still odd and a bit creepy the way that Junmyeon just stared at nothing when Suhø wasn’t inhabiting the body. He was dressed neatly for the day though. A brown and burgundy sweater vest, a white button-down long-sleeve shirt, and a pair of tan slacks. Black dress shoes adorned his feet. It screamed ‘dork’ every time that Kris saw him, granted, some of the clothes did look good on Junmyeon. The pink sweater before was cute on him, looked good with his skin tone, but the other outfits, they were a bit humorous.

“That sweater vest is hideous,” Kris murmured softly, surprised to catch Junmyeon’s attention. Those vacant eyes turned to him then looked down at himself. Kris worried he might’ve offended the dead boy but it was still the truth. The sweater vest was hideous. “I mean… I’m sorry, but it is…” he mumbled.

He wondered if he would get a response from Junmyeon, but instead the deep and smooth voice of Suhø’s came from the kitchen, “I let him dress himself every morning, they’re the clothes that his mother packed up and was about to donate after his death. They’re his clothes.”

Kris’s eyebrow rose at that, he stepped up to the kitchen counter to see Suhø in his red slacks and his leather black vest, his red blazer was missing. Kris tried to avoid the fact that Suhø’s chest was on full display, he glanced back at Junmyeon to see the dead boy’s gaze had returned to the television, “So he’s the one that’s been dressing himself up like a dork?”

Suhø cracked a grin, shrugging, “He was an interesting case when he was alive.” He grabbed a plate from the kitchen rack, and held it out to Kris, “Breakfast?” It was empty when he offered but as soon as he uttered the word breakfast, it filled with a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, two strips of bacon, and a slice of buttered toast. “Like I said before, you need to start eating more for breakfast. Those little energy bars and bags of chips aren’t good for you to start the day with.”

“You’re like a second mother…” Kris mumbled but the smell of the bacon had his mouth watering, and he didn’t want to refuse the plate of food. He took the plate and sat down on the stool at the kitchen counter. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Suhø replied, producing a spoon to hand to the boy. He leaned against the kitchen counter, propped up by his elbows, giving Kris space to sit and eat. He glanced over at Junmyeon as the boy stared at the television. “He’s always been an odd boy, you know, with the fashion.”

Kris looked up with a mouthful, humming in question. He looked back at Junmyeon, chewing his mouthful of food. If Junmyeon had sold his soul to Suhø, what had he sold his soul for? He looked like the definition of a perfect son, a bit of a dweeb, but a good boy, other than the hair.

“He’s got the same red hair as you…” Kris said after he swallowed his food, and taking another bite.

“He does, I did that part. His hair used to be the same black color as yours, when he was living anyway, but after he died and when I found use for his body, I allowed my hair color to bleed over into his,” Suhø ran a hand through his own hair, fluffing up the makeshift horn on the left side. “The curse that I placed on the other three boys that were with the spell-caster that night is the main reason for that. That color red would always remind them of _me_.”

Kris’s eyes widened, “That’s why Tyler looked scared shitless when you first came to class?”

“And Brian and Steve when we pass them in the hallways,” Suhø grinned wickedly, “They’re still having nightmares of that night too, the disappearance of the spell-caster and the virgin adds to their fear of me too. I told them they would know no peace, and I meant it.”

Well that explained the way the boys reacted around Kris, since Suhø showed up, it was a rarity that the boy was by himself on campus, so everywhere that Kris was, Suhø was, and the three would tuck their tails and run the other way when seeing them. He almost felt bad for them, but these were the boys that basically kidnapped him and was going to sacrifice him to a demon for their own selfish wants.

Kris decided to change the subject, nibbling on the last piece of his toast, “So what did you give Junmyeon in exchange for his soul?”

“He wanted into one of the highest universities in his country, he had the grades to get in himself, but the boy was seriously lacking in self-confidence, and he wanted a guarantee that he would be accepted into the college. So I gave it to him.”

That was a bit odd, but he supposed that maybe Junmyeon came from a noble family that expected a lot from him. The part about self-confidence made Kris feel slightly bad for earlier when he judged his outfits. Odds are Kris wasn’t the first person to poke fun at the fashion. “Did he sacrifice a virgin to you too?”

Suhø shook his head, “He _was_ the virgin.” Kris’s eyes widened, choking slightly on the toast. Suhø laughed softly, “I didn’t force myself on him. He simply promised himself to me in exchange for the guarantee of him getting into that college. When he died, I got a pure and untainted soul to feast on.” The dreamy look that overtook Suhø’s features made Kris gulp hard. The demon hummed happily, smiling, “It was delicious.” He chuckled at the wide eyes of the boy’s, “It’s a rarity that I get a soul like that, so it’s like a delicacy. Like a person on a diet treating themselves to the first slice of chocolate cake in months after dieting.”

Kris nodded slowly, realizing that while he understood that analogy, he didn’t have the faintest idea of what a soul could taste like. He wondered what his soul would taste like. It wasn’t pure like Junmyeon’s… would it taste bad? Or bland? Would it have a taste at all?

The boy glanced back at Junmyeon then at Suhø, finishing his breakfast, “Is it just a coincidence that he resembles you too though? Not just the hair, but your facial features... they’re really similar… you could be twins.”

Suhø’s smile fell from his lips at that question, almost frowning, and in turn, it made Kris frown and almost start backpedaling on his question, but Suhø simply shook his head, “That’s a question for another time… a lot later time.” As crazy as it seemed, the demon looked uncomfortable for the first time that Kris met him, he was always full of answers and had an almost cockiness to his aura, but that was failing him now. He took Kris’s plate, waving a hand across it, the crumbs and juice from the eggs was gone. It was sparkling clean again.

“I’m sorry… if I offended you?” Kris replied, unsure of what to take from Suhø’s reaction and expression.

The demon shook his head, “You’re fine, Yifan, you didn’t offend me. It’s just a complicated story between me and that soul.”

Kris wondered how complicated it could’ve been, unless there was more to the story. Because it didn’t sound like a complicated one with Junmyeon being a good son wanting into a top college and making a deal with a demon to guarantee it. And the way that Suhø looked when he spoke of eating Junmyeon’s soul, it didn’t look like it was a difficult thing?

He wondered what else it could’ve been. It was a bit strange the way the two resembled one another. Unless Suhø’s features bled through to Junmyeon’s face too, like it did with his hair. Maybe he’d check the article later that involved Junmyeon’s accident, it might have a picture of Junmyeon so he could compare.

“Your class starts in an hour, doesn’t it?”

Kris nodded, “Yeah, I guess I’ll go get a shower before then.”

Later that night after Kris was finished with his homework for the classes that day and then finished up the homework he’d left from his accounting class, he was alone in his room again. Junmyeon was back in his room, and Suhø was elsewhere. Kris hadn’t seen him since dinner that evening after he’d went back to his room to start his assignments.

The conversation that he’d had earlier that day with Suhø still plagued his mind. And reminded him to check out the article about Junmyeon’s death.

He typed in the search engine about recent vehicle deaths at colleges in South Korea and Junmyeon’s article was the first to pop up. The title itself let Kris know that the boy was an intelligent individual.

 _‘Top ranked college student struck by speeding driver in school zone.’_ He read further into the article, saw the reason for the accident, the results of the driver being held responsible, and then the article spoke of Junmyeon’s high grades in college and his dreams of following in his father’s footsteps with one of the country’s best selling industries.

The article didn’t show a picture of Junmyeon, so instead, he did a search on the boy himself, and found a picture of the boy from the last year of him in high school. Junmyeon was only two years younger than Kris now, so it left a three year gap between his college look and his high school look. But the picture was exactly how Junmyeon looked now.

Same facial features, same eyes, although the ones in the picture looked a bit more lively. The only difference was the hair, it was like Suhø said, black. The two looked identical, so the theory about Suhø’s looks fading over into Junmyeon’s body was wrong. He looked like Suhø even before the demon started possessing his body.

He wasn’t sure what to make of it. Was it just a mere coincidence that the two could pass as identical twins? Or was there something more to it? The way that Suhø reacted when Kris asked about it earlier had him curious but also cautious.

While he did like having Suhø around, it still didn’t escape his mind that this was a demon that was following him around. What Suhø told him about not being evil still didn’t stop him from being on edge. The fact that Henry and Kyle weren’t living anymore made him cautious, and Suhø still haunts the other three boys.

But when he thought about it, the conversation from last night still made him pause. He glanced over his left shoulder, the one that he saw Suhø glaring over, and while he saw nothing, he wondered if his guardian angel was right behind him now. If this being had been with him since birth, why was it now that Suhø was with him, he didn’t feel lonely anymore? Even with the confirmation from the demon of the angelic being’s existence, it didn’t make Kris feel any less lonely now. The one doing that was Suhø.

He just wondered what events were going to unfold soon that made Suhø decide to stick around with him. He was doing great in class, his grades were average, he wasn’t in danger of failing. The only mishap that he’d had since he started college was the whole ‘almost getting sacrificed to a demon’ event, and that, in a way, sorted itself out. Or more like Suhø sorted it out.


	6. Chapter Six

“Spring break is right around the corner, are you doing anything special? Mini-vacation?” Suhø asked, arms crossed behind his head as he stared up at Kris’s ceiling from laying back on the boy’s bed.

Kris noticed that this was usually where the demon ended up, sprawled out on his bed, laid back on his bed, sitting on his bed, or just on his bed period. The demon’s blazer was draped over the headboard of his bed, so he was back in his red slacks and black leather vest. The position had the vest splayed open, showing off his abs and chest, something that Kris tried to avoid letting his eyes drift to.

“I told my mom that I was coming back home for the week,” he answered, reclining back in his desk chair, giving pause to his studies for now. “But I’m kind of iffy about it since she’s staying with my aunt now.”

Suhø glanced over at him, “Did she say why she’s staying with her now?”

Kris sighed, “Financial issues. Her hours were cut and she won’t let me send her any of the money that grandfather gives me every month to help her out.”

“That household is the same that the uncle lives in?” The look that Kris gave him told him that it was, Suhø hummed, “Do you think your mother would mind if Junmyeon tagged along with you?”

His mother wouldn’t mind at all. The last few times that she had video-chatted with Kris, somehow Suhø in Junmyeon’s body appeared during the calls with either food or some small kind gesture. He could see it on his mother’s face that she liked seeing Junmyeon, and the small comments from her about how Kris had someone to take care of him since she couldn’t right now, he wouldn’t doubt that she liked Junmyeon, glad that he was considered one of Kris’s friends.

“I doubt she would mind, auntie’s house has three bedrooms… we’ll have to sleep together in the third room,” Kris commented.

Suhø managed a small shrug, “I wouldn’t mind.” He cracked a humorous smile, “Junmyeon is a very quiet sleeper so you won’t be bothered with snoring.”

Kris shook his head, laughing softly, knowing what Suhø meant by that, “Well, I hope _you_ aren’t bothered by snoring, because I do snore.”

“I don’t think I’ll mind,” Suhø chuckled. It was quiet again between them for a moment, Kris turning his gaze back to the ceiling as did Suhø. Quietly, Suhø spoke up, “ _He_ won’t bother you. Not while I’m there.”

Kris’s eyes slowly closed, taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes again, looking over at Suhø, he knew exactly who Suhø was talking about. It was the very reason why he was dreading the fact that his mother was staying with his aunt now. “Thank you.”

It was quiet between them again for a moment until Suhø finally asked a question that Kris had expected but still didn’t anticipate. “Will you ever tell your mother what he did to you?”

“It’s in the past… she shouldn’t have to know,” Kris shook his head, “She’d end up blaming herself for it happening and for not seeing it… after the first few times, I stopped crying about it being a careless bump or bruise. Just became indifferent to it… it didn’t stop it from hurting but by the time my mom came to pick me up, I’d dried up my tears.”

“You shouldn’t have had to,” Suhø scowled up at the ceiling, mumbling, “I’ll have a special place in my realm for his soul.”

Kris looked over at him after he heard that, “But why? I’m still confused as to why you would care… why do you care about what he did to me?”

Suhø met his gaze, “I’ve told you what souls I take care of in my realm.” But he knew that Kris meant more than that. He’d already been told that Suhø tortured the souls of the people that robbed children of their innocence. “You’re hurting, Yifan… I think that’s why I want nothing more than to shield you from any more hurt.”

Kris drew quiet again, gaze breaking from Suhø’s to return to stare at the ceiling. He’d put those events behind him over the years, just refused to think or talk about it, but ever since Suhø showed up and started picking at the scar, he realized that it wasn’t a scar, it hadn’t even scabbed over. It was still open and bleeding, he’d just turned a blind eye to it.

“You may have aged to an adult in human years, but you are still a child, curled up in that bathroom corner. Your soul is still in that childhood body.”

Kris shook his head, breathing coming out shaky, “I was doing fine… before you showed up though. Before Henry decided that I’d make a suitable sacrifice. I was focusing on my classes… studying… I didn’t even think of _him_.”

Suhø hummed, “If you leave a wound open for too long, with no care for it, it’ll get infected, Yifan.” He moved to sit up on the bed, drawing Kris’s attention again, “I figure that’s also the reason why you’ve never felt you fit in with society either?”

“I had friends, I haven’t always been alone,” at the pointed look that Suhø gave him, Kris corrected himself, “Okay, I had acquaintances, still, I haven’t always been alone.”

“You buried yourself in your studies to subside that loneliness though. The closest relationship you have with anyone is with your mother,” Suhø stated, “And now that she’s miles away from you, other than video-chat and phone calls, you’re here, by yourself. You could count Henry as a _friend_ , but you couldn’t confide in him. Not with important matters, other than not being able to chat up any of the campus girls.”

That was true, now that Kris thought about it, he couldn’t think of a single person that he felt he could ever confide in when it came to serious matters. Other than the small things that he could talk to his mother about.

“Well… I have you now, don’t I?” Kris mumbled softly, shrugging.

Suhø grinned, “And Junmyeon, I swear he’s a great listener.” Of course he was, he was dead, all he did was stare blankly at things when Suhø wasn’t inhabiting his body. “And you can confide in me with anything you need to.”

Kris liked the sound of that.

Tyler couldn’t take anymore of the nightmares, barely getting even an ounce of sleep to function on to attend class. His grades were suffering tremendously due to the lack of sleep and the fear. Every time he saw the new kid, Junmyeon, enter the classroom, it set his nerves alight. Kris being in tow with the new kid made it worse.

Junmyeon seemed like a normal student, but that red hair, all Tyler could see was the demon that had near choked them to death that night. Those bright blue glowing eyes, the evil grin, just the sheer scariness of the demon, it left him cowering. It didn’t help that no one had any clues or any leads in the missing cases of Henry and Kyle either, he feared that he could one day come up missing due to that demon.

When he talked to Brian and Steve about it, the two laughed it off, but he could see that they were just as scared as he was. Brian even suggested trying to teach Kris another lesson, but he never followed through with it. But he figured that since Kris was almost always accompanied with the red haired companion, Brian wouldn’t touch Kris out of fear.

Junmyeon wasn’t that demon, he tried to believe that, but the fear was still there.

It was a week before spring break when Tyler had finally been driven to near insanity due to the lack of sleep and the haunting nightmares that he finally decided that enough was enough. He sat at his desk and waited to see the tall black haired Chinese boy come through the door of the classroom. He kept glancing at the clock, the instructor would probably be a few minutes off schedule, he almost always was, and Tyler’s foot couldn’t stay still from his nerves going haywire.

Finally, after almost ten minutes, in came Kris with the red haired boy in tow. He waited until Kris had gotten seated, his laptop pulled out and his notebook that he always took notes in. Junmyeon followed suit with his own supplies.

Tyler rose up on shaky legs, nearly stumbling as he made his way over to Kris’s desk. Thankfully everyone else was minding their own business, in their friends’ groups or just playing on their phones. When he came to stand in front of Kris’s desk, he knew he’d surprised Kris with the way the boy looked up at him with wide eyes.

He knew he looked like shit, he could tell by the way that those brown eyes ran over his face, and noticing the way that Tyler’s hands shook with nerves.

“H-Hey, Kris?” He called, trying and failing not to glance at the red haired boy that was watching him with careful eyes, he turned his attention back to Kris, “I… I wanted you to know that… I’m sorry for what we did to you. The stupid stunts we pulled with knocking your books down… ruining your lunch that one day… and the… the night that Henry got us together, it keeps haunting me at night. I-I’m sorry.”

Kris’s eyes widened a little more, glancing over at Junmyeon before turning back to Tyler, unsure of what to say at first, “Um… it’s okay, Tyler?” How could he say that? It couldn’t have been okay. The things that Tyler and the other boys did to Kris, and then the whole ‘wanting to use him as a sacrifice’? How could it be okay? But Tyler didn’t get the chance to question it as Kris continued, “I forgive you.”

Tyler wanted to ask how he could forgive them for the things they did, but sparing one last glance at Junmyeon, those brown eyes flickered a bright blue for a split second and it had Tyler quickly stuttering out a small ‘ _okay’_ and then he hightailed it back to his seat. He was frightened by the red haired boy but after class started and by the time it ended, his shoulders felt lighter. Like he wasn’t weighted down anymore.

That night, for the first time in several weeks, he had a peaceful night’s sleep.

_“I already told your aunt that we’ll be expecting your plane next week, I can’t wait to see my baby again,”_ his mother stated over the phone.

“I can’t wait to see you too, Mama,” he smiled, but then paused, “Do you think auntie would mind if I brought Junmyeon with me?”

 _“I doubt she’ll mind, you’ll have to bunk together in the third room though,”_ his mother replied. _“He didn’t want to spend spring break with his family?”_

Kris smiled slightly at the rehearsed story that Suhø went over with him, “He said his parents were out of the house for the next month. They’re really busy people, going all over the world constantly.”

_“Wow, that sounds exciting… but also makes me sad for him, surely that would make him feel lonely?”_

“He said it’s always been like that since he was a kid, he’s used to it.”

She hummed, _“Well, I don’t mind having an extra son to care for next week.”_ Her voice softened, he could almost picture the smile on her face, _“I’m glad you two have become close friends, I worry about you, but I feel a bit more eased now.”_

Admittedly, he was a bit more at ease too with Suhø around, even if it was a demon that was rooming with him. But with spring break coming up and the trip back home, he slept a bit more at ease too with the trip. After he learned his mother was staying with his aunt and _that_ man, he was crossed between dreading the trip back home and looking forward to seeing his mother again.

But he trusted that Suhø would be by his side the whole time.

_“Are you still doing good in your classes? Have you had any exams yet?”_

Kris spent the rest of the call, telling her all about his different classes and the recent exams that he’d had. He was waiting on the results of the outcome of the exams, but he knew that he did pretty well on them.

By the time he’d gotten off the phone, Suhø had entered his room and taken up his favorite spot on Kris’s bed. He was propped up on the pillows this time instead of lying down. Unlike the last few times, he was back in his red blazer, but everything was still unbuttoned, leaving his chest and abs on display. Something that was becoming a regularity to Kris.

“Your mother’s okay with Junmyeon tagging along?”

Kris nodded, putting his phone down beside his laptop, “She is, I think she’s going to mother you like crazy though. She felt sorry for you after hearing about Junmyeon’s parents being out of town.”

Suhø smiled, “I don’t think Junmyeon will mind that.” He shrugged, “It’s nice that she doesn’t mind though… if she didn’t want him to come along with you, _I_ would’ve still came along with you. Just… no one else would’ve seen me.”

Kris was grateful that she didn’t mind Junmyeon tagging along, it put his nerves at ease now. With what Suhø said, he didn’t think the demon would let him go off alone back to that house. Even if he was the only one that would’ve seen Suhø, at least, he wouldn’t be on his own there, just in case his uncle tried to do anything.

He wasn’t sure if the older man would or not, but seeing as Junmyeon would be bunking with Kris in that third bedroom, he wouldn’t be isolated or provide any chances to try anything.

“Was that the truth about Junmyeon’s family though? About his parents working all the time?”

Suhø nodded, “They are very busy. He was a very busy boy too. I don’t think they knew how to stop and smell the roses, per say. His father ran a very big company, and Junmyeon was in line to take over his father’s position in another ten years after graduating college.”

Kris whistled low, “Sounds stressful.”

“It was. I think the only real rest that Junmyeon got was after being hit by the car. He didn’t even know that he was dead at first, until I appeared to collect him.”

“Was he scared when you showed up?”

Suhø nodded, “Everybody always is, but he didn’t try to run away or flee from me. After he saw himself on the pavement, bleeding out, he knew what had happened.” Suhø’s voice became softer as he continued, “A bit sad, if you ask me. The last thing on his mind was worrying about passing his exam before he died.”

“Do you feel bad about eating his soul?”

Suhø started to shake his head, as if it were a dumb question, but he hesitated, “Not exactly… it was a good soul, as I told you before, pure and the best tasting soul I’d had in a long time…” he paused, almost like he wanted to add something to it but stopped himself.

Kris stared at him for a moment, “My soul probably wouldn’t taste as good, would it?”

Suhø hummed, “Yours would still make a delicious meal. I know you’re thinking that since it isn’t virginal anymore, it wouldn’t be as good as Junmyeon’s, but you’re a good person, Yifan. That alone helps add flavor to a soul.” He chuckled to himself, “Enough about eating souls, I won’t be eating yours, so you don’t have to worry about that. Do you want me to tell you if you passed those exams or not?”

Instead of saying yes or no to that question, Kris decided he wanted to talk more about Junmyeon. “Can I… can I ask about why you and Junmyeon resemble one another so much?” The way that Suhø’s face fell as soon as he asked the question made Kris want to take back the question, but he tacked on, “You did say it’s a story for a later time…” he shrugged sheepishly when Suhø laughed softly, “It _is_ a later time.”

Suhø shifted back on the bed, gaze leaving Kris’s to trail up to stare at his ceiling, he sighed softly, “It _is_ a later time, you’re right. Time moves so fast for you humans.”

“But if you don’t want to tell me now, it’s okay, Suhø-”

“It’s okay, Yifan. It’s just…”

It was so odd to Kris to see Suhø at a loss for words. Kris felt bad for asking the question now, but he was curious. Ever since that morning when he brought up the coincidence of the two looking like twins, he just couldn’t stop wondering what the story was behind it. And then finding out that it wasn’t Suhø’s appearance shaping Junmyeon’s, it just added more questions.

“Junmyeon is the incarnation of my twin brother, _one_ of the many incarnations.” That had Kris’s eyes widening, the demon smiled slightly. “Like I told you before, I am the Ninth Prince of the realms in Hell, and before that, I _managed_ all eight of the realms in Hell, my twin, _Suho_ , managed the realms in Heaven.

“Suho loved humanity, he loved humans, more than anything, and he wanted to be a human. It always dumbfounded me, you humans are so powerless, but he thought you were truly free, more free than we were.” Suhø shrugged, “We have freewill, just like you humans do, so I was confused by it, but he was stubborn in his ways, just like I am. He allowed himself to become a mortal soul, one that would reincarnate over and over again.

“And he had. Since about ten thousand years ago?” Suhø shrugged, as if he couldn’t remember the exact date. “Because he was my twin brother and I loved him dearly, I watched over him from the time of his first birth into humanity to even now.”

Kris spoke up without meaning to, “But you said you ate his soul… you ate your brother’s soul?”

Suhø nodded, “I did.” He placed a red tipped hand on his own chest, and a white glow started to emit from it, following Suhø’s hand as he drew it away from himself, breathing shaky for a moment before he exhaled deeply. In his hand was a white orb, glowing brighter than any kind of light that Kris had ever seen. He squinted his eyes when he stared at it for too long, it was so bright. “There’s been many lifetimes that he’s sold his soul to me, and I have taken it, eaten it countless times, before allowing it to go back into the universe, to be reborn again into whatever his soul wants.”

“But… you ate your brother’s soul… how…” he wanted to ask how could he do that but couldn’t seem to find the words as he stared at that white orb. It was like Suhø was holding a small cloud in his hand.

“We’re not bound by the same morality that you are, Yifan,” Suhø stated, looking at the orb before allowing it to sink back into his chest. “And I am still bound by my contracts, no matter _who_ summons me.”

“Did… did Junmyeon know you were his twin brother when he summoned you?”

Suhø shook his head, “No. His memory is wiped clean every time he’s reborn. He only knows it’s me when he’s in soul form, like now.”

Kris thought over everything Suhø had just told him and one thing that stuck out was that he said he’d managed all _eight_ of the realms of Hell. But if he were the Ninth Prince, there would have to be nine realms?

“You said you _managed_ all eight realms? Is that what the Ninth Prince does? Is there other princes?”

Suhø nodded, “There’s other princes, you’ll never meet them, they hardly leave their realm. They have rituals that will make them surface but once they’re called upon, done their deed, they return home to stay. They’re not interested in the human realm.

“I formed the Ninth realm of Hell on my own, it was a special place for what I deemed _special_ souls to suffer,” Suhø’s gaze dropped to his hand that had been holding his brother’s soul moments ago. “The very first incarnation that Suho took on, at _six years_ _old_ , he was raped.” Kris’s eyes widened at that, but some of the pieces about Suhø were starting to come together. “The guardian angel that was supposed to be watching him allowed that to happen. Saying that it was something that some humans had to endure. As if it were some business transaction. An obstacle to overcome.” Suhø’s eyes darkened, his frown deepening. It scared Kris but he was glad he wasn’t on the receiving end of it, it wasn’t aimed at him. “Perhaps it is an obstacle to overcome for some humans, your case included, but it didn’t stop the fact that I wanted vengeance.

“My brother, my dear and sweet _brother_ , was hurt like that, and the fluttery little bastard did nothing to stop it. Nothing to intervene. I was too late to intervene, didn’t know about it happening until after it happened. And I went crazy,” Suhø chuckled lowly, a wicked look in his eyes as he stared at his empty hand. “ _I_ formed the Ninth realm of Hell to punish the bastard that dared touch my brother like that. To rob him of his innocence. I formed it and when that bastard breathed his last breath, _I_ took his soul, and he’s been burning in _my_ lake of fire for the last ten thousand years.”

Kris didn’t realize he was shaking at first, until Suhø’s gaze lifted from his hand to the trembling hands of Kris’s that clutched at the arms of his chair. His gaze softened, relaxed into something more _human_ -like, not as scary now. He took a deep breath, gaze meeting Kris’s.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, Yifan.”

Exhaling deeply, Yifan shook his head, “I’m okay. You didn’t scare me… or I didn’t mean to get scared. I know you weren’t aiming that at me.”

He shook his head again, trying to rid the fear from him, but also hearing the way that Suhø talked, it brought back the old memories of being back in that bathroom, cuddled up in the corner, sobbing and hurting.

He could almost imagine Suhø’s twin brother doing the same. Tears started to fill his eyes when he thought about it. Remembering his own past and then hearing about Suhø’s brother’s past, it was suddenly becoming too overwhelming. His breath hitching up, mind trapped by unwanted thoughts and memories surfacing, it was too much. It was too-

His mind suddenly went blank. The soft press of a hand against his temple had him looking up to see Suhø standing over him, a sympathetic expression on his face as his hand moved to cradle Kris’s face. He could breathe again, it didn’t hurt to breathe now, his mind was calm. The bite of the memories trying to resurface was gone.

“You were starting to hyperventilate,” Suhø’s soft voice came out, and before Kris knew it, he was reaching out to Suhø, wrapping his arms around the demon’s waist and resting his head against that toned stomach, taking deep breaths. Suhø’s fingers carded through his hair, “You wanted to know Junmyeon’s story, that was it, his soul is my brother.”

Kris tried to nod, sniffling, embarrassed about tearing up now, “I-I know… I’m just… I’m sorry that happened to him.”

Suhø held him close, “I am too, and I’m sorry it happened to you too.”


	7. Chapter Seven

Seeing the scores posted on the homepage of his college, Kris sighed in relief, sinking back in his chair. It was the day before the flight back home when the grades had been posted, and now he could go home with a feeling of accomplishment at passing the exams. Suhø had tried to get him to accept his offer of telling him how he did on the exam, but Kris declined. It was hard since the anxiety of it was eating away at his mind, but he could finally breathe easy now.

“I could’ve told you that you’d passed,” Suhø’s voice echoed in the air, his hands coming to rest on Kris’s shoulders, thumbs rubbing circles against his back in an easing manner. “Could’ve saved you all this week of anxiety.”

Kris leaned into the touch, relaxing further, “It wouldn’t have been a true college experience if I’d let you do that.”

Suhø grinned, shaking his head, “Junmyeon is all packed and ready for the flight.”

Kris threw a small glance over at his suitcase and backpack, “Same here.” He closed his eyes, “I’ll be back home tomorrow evening.”

“You will, and I’ll be there with you,” Suhø pulled away from Kris to take his favorite spot on the boy’s bed.

Kris raised back up in his chair and closed the screen on the laptop, he didn’t have anymore assignments right now. “Tyler looked like he’s been sleeping better.” In case the last Monday, he didn’t have as dark of circles under his eyes, and he wasn’t as shaky when the instructor called on him.

“You forgave him,” Suhø shrugged, sprawling back on Kris’s bed, arms pillowed under his head as he stared up at the ceiling. “He learned his lesson, asked for forgiveness, and now he’s fine. The other two, however…” he threw a wicked grin at Kris to imply that yes, he was still haunting their dreams.

Now that Kris thought about it, the other twin did look scared shitless when they saw him and Junmyeon in the halls, and they did look like they hadn’t been sleeping that well. Dark circles under their eyes, their skin was paler than usual, and their hands shook, he’d noticed. He wondered what exactly Suhø did in those dreams to cause the two to lose sleep.

“Are you going to haunt my uncle with bad dreams too?”

Suhø started to shake his head but then managed a shrug, “I was thinking of something a little more than just bad dreams.”

Kris hummed, wondering what Suhø had in mind, and then another thing crossed his mind at that, “I don’t want to forgive him.” He shook his head, “I _don’t_ forgive him.”

“That’s perfectly fine,” Suhø grinned, if that were the case, then he could go the entirety of Kris’s uncle’s life with tormenting him.

The next morning, after getting up and getting dressed, Kris was met at the door by Junmyeon, dressed neatly in a baby blue cardigan, a soft pink button down underneath, and a pair of tan slacks. He still looked like a dork, but the baby blue against his skin tone was beautiful. Kris could almost imagine how much better the boy would’ve looked with black haired instead of bright red. In his hands was his suitcase, a dark blue tartan pattern.

“That blue looks good on you,” Kris commented on the way out of the dorms.

The vacant gaze looked up at him, making Kris wonder for a moment where Suhø was, the quiet voice came from Junmyeon’s lips, “Thank you.” His gaze trailed down Kris’s clothes before turning back to staring vacantly ahead, following after Kris.

It took hardly any time to get to the airport from the taxi ride from the dorms, they did have a small thirty minute delay before being able to board, but everything else went along smoothly. Junmyeon had produced a dark colored card along with his passport, and the clerk didn’t even open it to check it like she did with Kris’s. He wondered vaguely if Suhø had anything to do with it.

It wasn’t until halfway through the plane trip that Junmyeon’s breathing changed, he had his eyes shut for the start of the trip, almost like he’d fallen asleep, but when they opened, there was life back in those eyes.

“Sorry about that, had to make sure everything was in order to pave Junmyeon’s way of coming with you,” Suhø’s voice quietly whispered from Junmyeon’s lips.

Kris nodded, “I kind of figured that when the clerk didn’t even check Junmyeon’s passport. Plus how did you even enroll him in college if he’s…” his voice lowered, “dead?”

A grin crossed Junmyeon’s face, an exact replica of Suhø’s, “They received a blank application, everything in Junmyeon’s file at the student records is blank. The only time the pages have anything on them is when they look at it and see what they need to see and then it just leaves their minds.” He shrugged, “Junmyeon is hardly an afterthought of any kind.”

Kris nodded again in understanding, but also felt bad now that he looked over at Junmyeon sitting beside him. Suhø was now inhabiting his body, but it made him feel sorry for the boy. “That’s… that’s a bit sad.”

Suhø’s grin faded off into a sad smile, “It is,” then he shook his head, grinning again, “But after that double-take from you this morning, he’s more than an afterthought for you.”

Kris’s eyes widened, cheeks tinting, “Uh… you weren’t there for that though? How’d you know about that?” Suhø just winked at him, making his cheeks tint more, he mumbled, shrugging, “So? That shade of blue looks good on him.”

Suhø looked down at himself in Junmyeon’s body, nodding in agreement, “I do agree, this is a pretty shade of blue on him. I prefer red though.”

Kris chuckled, gaze trailing to Junmyeon’s hair, “You make that obvious enough.”

Suhø grinned, then hummed, “You two would’ve gotten along just fine if you’d ever met.” Kris’s eyes widened at that, giving it a little thought, but Suhø continued, “Tell me, Yifan, are you just interested in girls? Or both?”

The question caught him off guard, now that he’d thought about it, he never really did see anyone in his future with him. Let alone what gender they would’ve been. He was scarred from his past, and it was still affecting his daily life now, so he didn’t put much hope into dating, but with the way that Suhø tended to flaunt his toned chest around him, and the small instances that Kris found he couldn’t take his eyes off him… did he like men too?

“If you’re not sure or if the question makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to answer,” Suhø took his silence as offended instead of confusion.

But Kris thought back to this morning and all the other mornings of seeing Junmyeon in different outfits, was he really just staring at the boy because of the dorkish clothes or was he staring in interest? Junmyeon was a beautiful boy, so was Suhø, but of course, they looked almost identical. And those lips that poked out when Suhø pouted with him, it did make Kris curious as to how soft they were.

Kris shook his head, “I don’t know… I mean… I have seen attractive girls and attractive boys… Junmyeon being one of them,” he mumbled out the last part. He would’ve said ‘you too’ for Suhø, but was suddenly too shy to do so.

“That’s understandable, you haven’t had much experience in the dating world,” Suhø nodded.

“Was… was Junmyeon gay? Or did he like both?” Now that they were on that subject, he wondered what gender Junmyeon would’ve liked, or _did like_ , before he died. Suhø said he was still a virgin when he died, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have had his preference on who caught his eye.

Suhø nodded again, “Junmyeon liked men. Of course, he never did anything with anyone but he did have a small crush on one of his classmates throughout high school.”

“Is that the same for your brother’s soul? Was Suho gay too?”

The amused laugh caught Kris off guard but Suhø clarified, shaking his head, “We’re not bound by your earthly ideals of relationships, Yifan. My brother’s first incarnation, he fell in love with a woman, his second, he fell in love with a man, throughout the years, he’s fallen in love with several different genders… but that was because the soul he kept falling in love with was born as this or that, sometimes even both genders, as that spectrum is merely labels.

“I, myself included, am not bound to simple gender labels either. I can be whatever I chose to take form in, male, female, both, or neither. But first and foremost, I am a soul, as he is, and souls are genderless. That’s why when a soul is reincarnated, they take on which every gender they choose to.”

Kris slowly nodded, finding that interesting, but also the thing about Suhø’s twin brother, if it were true that the soul that he kept falling in love with was the same soul throughout the centuries… was the person that Junmyeon had a crush on in high school the same soul he’d loved throughout the centuries? He voiced that curiosity to Suhø, wanting to know more about Junmyeon.

But Suhø shook his head, “No, that wasn’t the same soul. There was an attraction there, but it wouldn’t have lead them anywhere. Unfortunately in this lifetime, they wouldn’t have met.”

“In this lifetime, is the other soul male?”

Suhø nodded, “Mhm, that’s why in this lifetime, Junmyeon was gay. It’s just the way that souls work, you, humans, like to call them soul mates, and it rings true in some cases. The soul that Suho fell in love with has been his soul mate since the very first incarnation.”

Kris nodded slowly, letting that information sink in, “Has there been other lifetimes that your brother hasn’t found his soul mate?”

“Yes, many, but the times that he has found them outweighs the times he didn’t,” Suhø shrugged.

“Do you have a soul mate?” Kris figured the question was harmless, if Suhø’s twin brother had a soul mate, surely Suhø would have one too, right?

But Suhø shook his head, “I’ve never been incarnated into a human being, so there’s never been a soul to imprint on mine, to _mix_ with mine.” Then he smiled, amused, “And before you ask, no, I’ve never met a person that I’ve fallen in love with either. I’m not bound by the emotions humans have, nor would I want to be. I’m perfectly happy in my role as the punishment for wrongdoers.”

Hearing that come from Junmyeon’s lips, despite it being Suhø’s voice made something in Kris’s stomach twist. He couldn’t tell if it was pity that the demon never loved a person or fell in love, or that he just didn’t want to. Then another question popped up for Kris, one he was hesitant about asking but at the same time, he wanted to know too.

“Do… do I have a soul mate?” Maybe it was a dumb question, because it just reminded him of all the childish movies he’d watched where the princess meets her prince and they fall in love happily ever after. Was that what having a soul mate was like? Did he have someone like that?

The smile that crossed Junmyeon’s face was sad, those eyes flashing bright blue for a moment, “You do, Yifan, you do, but your case is much like Junmyeon’s in this lifetime.”

Well, that put a damper on Kris’s mood, would he ever be happy in this lifetime? He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the feelings of disappointment at that. “Oh, okay.”

The soft hand that slid over his had Kris gulping down his emotions, gaze landing on that pale hand, it was so much smaller compared to Kris’s hand. For the hand to belong to a dead boy, it was warm, _comforting_.

“But just because you won’t get to meet _them_ , it’s not to say that you can’t find another soul to be happy with for this lifetime,” Suhø reminded him. “You’re not going to end up all alone, Yifan.”

Kris’s hand moved under Junmyeon’s, turning over to hold onto the hand, he hesitantly nodded, cracking a wary smile, trying to brush off the disappointment he still felt, “Y-You’re right.” He cleared his throat, “I’ve got you, don’t I?”

Intertwining their fingers, a smile crossed Junmyeon’s face, “You do.”

By the time that the plane was landing, Suhø was shaking Kris awake. He didn’t know that during his little nap, his head ended up on Junmyeon’s shoulder. His cheeks flared with embarrassment at the wet spot on the boy’s sweater where he’d been drooling. But Suhø waved it off, quite literally, because a second later, the wet spot was no longer there.

“Was your mother going to come and pick us up from the airport?”

Kris shook his head, “Auntie said that she would, Mama said that she’d rather get out in traffic than have Mama to. She hasn’t been sleeping well, I don’t want her to be exhausted by being in traffic.”

“Ah,” Suhø nodded in understanding but there was something in his gaze that told Kris that he knew something more about the situation.

He wondered if the demon could tell him why his mother hadn’t been sleeping that well. There had been different scenarios that Kris came up with as the reason for it, and most of them revolved around the monster that was in that household. He just prayed that that wasn’t the case. Surely that man wouldn’t do something like that to his mother.

“She probably just misses you so much that it’s affecting her sleep,” a kind smile crossed Junmyeon’s face as they got their luggage from the pickup line. “I’m sure as soon as you’re back in her arms, she’ll sleep peacefully tonight.”

“I hope so,” Kris nodded, but he still thought there was something more to it than just her missing him causing the sleepless nights.

As soon as they stepped outside of the airport, Kris immediately spotted his aunt waiting outside her car, looking back and forth at the crowd of people before finally spotting him. Or more like spotting Junmyeon’s bright red hair. He didn’t doubt his mother told him that there would be a bright red head accompanying him. She waved at them, and once Kris made it to her car with his bags, she threw her arms around him.

“Oh, Yifan, it’s so good to see you again!” She smiled, pulling away and pinching his cheek, then glanced back at Junmyeon, bowing in greeting, “And you must be Junmyeon. It’s good to meet you.”

He bowed back, smiling softly, the same smile that Kris knew had won his mother’s heart every time they video-chatted and Junmyeon popped up, “Same to you, Yifan’s told me a lot about you, I’m glad we finally get to meet.”

He could see it working the same effect on his aunt too, her smile widening, “All good things he’s told you, I hope,” she laughed softly, waving, “Come on, let’s get your bags in the car, your mother kept calling and messaging me the last twenty minutes asking if you’d landed yet.”

Kris shook his head, moving around to the trunk of the car to put his bags and help Junmyeon with his luggage, “That’s Mama. Has she been sleeping better? Did the doctor give her anything to help her sleep?”

There was a look of pity that crossed his aunt’s face at first before it faded, she shook her head, “She’s still not getting a good’s night rest, it hasn’t been as bad, but still not a restful sleep. I told her that she needs to stop worrying about you so much, that you’re doing just fine, and wouldn’t want her to worrying herself to the point of not getting sleep.”

Kris felt like there was something more to it than what she said, and when he spared a glance at Junmyeon, he could see that the boy looked a bit suspicious too. But he didn’t press anymore on the issue, deciding to ask his mother about it later. “Well, hopefully she’ll rest easier this week that I’m back home.”

His aunt nodded, “I’m sure she will.”

It wasn’t a surprise to be wrapped up in his mother’s arms as soon as he walked through the door of the apartment, but it was surprising when she let go of him and gave Junmyeon a big hug too. No formal bow for the greeting, a big hug instead. One that had Junmyeon returning and looking at Kris in confusion.

“I finally get to see you in person, Junmyeon,” his mother finally released him from the hug, standing back to look over him. “You are absolutely _handsome_ ,” she turned back to Kris, “You didn’t tell me that he was this handsome, Yifan. The video-chat doesn’t do justice.”

The tinting of Junmyeon’s cheeks was amusing to Kris, the way that he turned completely bashful at Kris’s mother’s praises just added to the amusement.

“A handsome _dork_ , maybe,” Kris mumbled softly, his mother didn’t hear but Junmyeon did, throwing a playful glare at Kris.

Junmyeon finally bowed, “Thank you, Mama Wu, it’s nice to finally meet you in person too. I agree that the video-chat doesn’t do justice, I see where Yifan gets his good looks from.”

Kris’s mother giggled softly, brushing it off, “Oh, please, you flatter me.”

Suhø could see the similarities between the two, the only thing that was lacking was the height, Kris was like a giant compared to his mother. But the face, the eyes, the nose, and the lips were all the same. But he could see the reason for Kris’s worry for his mother.

Her skin was paler than a normal person’s, even more than Junmyeon’s, and there were dark circles under her eyes. And he could hear her heartbeat was a tad bit faster than it should’ve been, even with the excitement of her son being back. Her frame was a bit on the thin side too, thinner than what would be deemed healthy.

She had a secret that she was keeping from Kris, it was plain as day, but Suhø saw through it. Had seen through it from the first time he’d saw her in the video-chat.

“Come on, I’ll take you to the room where you’ll be staying, you can put your luggage away too,” she started to lead them through the apartment, her movements a bit slow, unstable almost.

Something that Kris noticed as well, but didn’t say anything.

The bed was a full-sized raised pallet on the floor. Big enough for two people. Kris and Suhø looked at one another once his mother left them to put away their luggage, opting to go help ready the food that his aunt made for him for his return home.

“I hope you don’t mind sharing the bed with yours truly,” Suhø spoke, a smirk cocking upwards on Junmyeon’s face as he waved over himself. Despite Junmyeon being an absolute twin to Suhø, for some reason, the smirk didn’t look right on Junmyeon’s face.

Kris shrugged, chuckling softly, “I don’t mind, but like I told you before, I snore.”

The smirk on Junmyeon’s face faded into a smile, “I don’t think Junmyeon will mind.” He set down his suitcase in the corner, shedding off his baby blue sweater and draping it over the small accent chair. “He’s not here right now.”

Kris placed his bag and suitcase in the other corner of the room, glancing at the closed door, “I didn’t think he would be. He’ll be home later though, he always did work odd hours.”

“Your aunt never had any children?”

“No, they kept trying for a child but never had any luck,” Kris replied, “Kind of good in a way, if you ask me.” At least without them having any children, there wasn’t any chance of another child suffering what Kris did when growing up.

“Very good, sad for your aunt though. It’s obvious she would’ve made a good mother too,” Suhø remarked, he held out his hand to Kris, “Come on, let’s not keep them waiting.”


	8. Chapter Eight

His mother and aunt went all out with the dinner that they prepared. Fixing all of Kris’s favorite dishes. Fried pork, hot pot, and dumplings. Suhø fit right in, having a seat next to Kris while his mother sat on the other side of him, his aunt was across the table, and the empty chair that remained, Kris knew who would be filling that seat eventually. But he tried not to dwell on that reminder for now, just indulging in all the foods that he’d missed seriously since he left for college.

“These are amazing,” Suhø commented, taking another bite of the dumpling. “You’ll have to teach me how to make these while we’re here.”

Kris’s mother nodded happily, “I’d be glad to. I’ve seen some of the dishes you’ve shared with Yifan too, in exchange for showing you how to make the dumplings, teach me how to make that seaweed roll?” She paused, trying to think of the name, glancing over at Kris, “What did you say it was, Yifan?”

“Kimbap,” Kris and Suhø said in unison. Suhø continued, “It’s a popular food in my country, very easy to make, I’ll show you.”

She nodded, “It looked good in the video-chat, I’m not surprised that it’s a popular food.” She took a sip of her tea, “So, Junmyeon, Yifan told me that your parents are out of the country on a business trip?”

“Yes, they’re almost always on the go, Appa owns a large company in South Korea and they’re branching out to other countries. I’m studying business in Canada to get more… _cultured_ , as he put it, so that afterwards, I can take over his position.”

“My, that sounds impressive,” her eyes wide with amazement, then they dimmed, “But that must be lonely though, do you spend any time with your family?”

He shrugged, “Mostly for big holidays, like Christmas and the New Year.” He smiled bashfully, “I bury myself in my studies.”

She chuckled softly, “Sounds like my Yifan. Always with his nose in the books. He’s going to be a great businessman too when he graduates.” Kris’s cheeks tinted at the compliment, he knew that was her dream for him, to be a successful businessman, but she had hopes of him being a doctor too. But due to Kris’s weak stomach, that was ruled out in his early years.

Suhø smiled, looking over at Kris, agreeing with his mother, “He is, I can talk to my Appa about getting his foot in the door too. Or at least, show him the ropes.”

Kris’s mother looked delighted to hear that, “I’m sure Yifan will like that.”

They continued eating, and almost halfway through the meal, the front door to the apartment was heard opening. Kris already knew who it had to be, body tensing, but he tried to not make it too obvious. His aunt looked up with a smile as did his mother when the tall dark haired man stepped into the dining room. Suhø noticed Kris’s body going rigid, and secretly placed a hand on Kris’s thigh, drawing the boy’s attention, giving him a reassuring nod. As a way of saying _‘its okay, I’m here’_.

“Sorry I’m late to the dinner, the boss kept holding me up with this newborn baby stories,” the man playfully rolled his eyes, a grin tugging his lips as he moved up to Kris’s aunt, kissing her lips briefly, and turning his attention to Kris, “Yifan, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you.” He looked like he wanted to edge around the table to hug the boy, but stopped when he saw the bright red haired boy seated beside Kris. “Is this the roommate?”

Kris’s mother nodded, smiling, “That’s him, Kim Junmyeon. An absolute sweetheart.”

Junmyeon’s cheeks tinted at the compliment, smile turning shy, mumbling, “That’s me.” He bowed his head towards Kris’s uncle, the man following suit before having a seat at the table, occupying himself with the food.

Kris’s uncle tried to make small talk with Kris, his mother and aunt chiming in with small things here and there, and Junmyeon was brought up in most subjects by Kris’s mother. But Suhø watched the way that Kris’s uncle, Yijin, talked and kept throwing small glances over at Kris.

The man was tall like Kris was, his hair was black but speckled with gray spots at the front, lines of time decorated his face here and there, and his eyes were a dark brown, but they appeared hard. He wasn’t unattractive, but the truth about him made the man horridly ugly to Suhø. And he had no doubt that it did for Kris too.

But as Suhø observed the man, he could already see the contents of the man’s soul. Kris wasn’t the only victim of this man. He was a predator. A sick, twisted predator. The man’s other nieces and nephews were victims of his, and much like Kris, they had been scared into not coming forward about the events.

It made Suhø’s blood boil, but he kept a cool and calm face for Junmyeon, letting him laugh and joke as they continued their dinner. He could still sense Kris’s uneasiness, but his hand on his thigh hadn’t gone anywhere. And after Kris finished his dinner, that large hand had settled on top of Junmyeon’s.

Kris didn’t notice the way that his mother’s gaze found their hands on his thigh, but Suhø did. He also didn’t notice the way her gaze softened when she saw it either.

After everyone was finished eating, Kris’s uncle retreated into the living room to watch television while his aunt and mother started clearing up the table. Kris didn’t want to be anywhere near his uncle so he opted to help with the dishes, and Suhø didn’t want to leave the taller boy’s side for a moment so he opted to dry the dishes after Kris washed them.

“Seriously, you boys didn’t have to do the dishes,” Kris’s mother spoke up, watching the two as she put away the leftovers of the dinner into small containers to put in the fridge.

“But it is greatly appreciated,” his aunt chimed in with a smile, bringing in the last of the dishes from the table.

Junmyeon smiled back, “We couldn’t let you do the dishes after cooking all day. I’m sure you’re probably tired, so rest yourself.”

Kris’s mother shook her head, chuckling softly, “You’re so thoughtful, Junmyeon.” She sighed, putting away the last container, “Normally I would object to that notion, but I think I will go sit down and rest.”

His aunt agreed with that notion, eyes concerned as she looked over Kris’s mother, reaching out to help her stance. Kris didn’t miss the expression on her face, nor did he miss the way that his mother looked drained. She didn’t look as tired earlier during dinner, but he figured that was just the excitement from Kris being back home, and the small pleasantries from Junmyeon. But now she didn’t look as lively.

He paused in washing the dish he had, “Mama, are you sure you’re okay?”

She was about to reply but his aunt was already waving a dismissive hand at him, “She’s okay, Yifan, just a little tiredness from not being able to sleep is all. She’ll rest better tonight now that you’re under the same roof as her.” There was a smile on his aunt’s face that left many things unsaid, despite how reassuring she tried to make it.

“I’ll be fine, Yifan, don’t you worry,” his mother stated, letting his aunt help her into the living room.

Kris stared after her before returning his gaze to the soapy water in the sink, there was something they weren’t telling him. He knew there had to be more to the sleepless nights than just her worrying about him.

“She’ll be alright, Yifan,” Suhø murmured softly, but even those words coming from the demon, himself, didn’t ease Kris’s racing thoughts.

Kris handed him the plate after rinsing it, “Somehow I don’t believe that.”

Suhø took the plate from him, blinking at it, drying it instantly, he looked up at Kris, eyes flashing bright blue, “She _will_ be.”

After they finished the dishes, they retreated into the living room as well, to find Kris’s uncle and aunt sharing the couch together, his arm around her shoulders, while his mother was curled up in the accent chair, a throw draped over her lap. Kris and Suhø sat down in the loveseat near Kris’s mother.

“Thank you, boys, for washing the dishes,” his aunt spoke up.

“No problem, Yixian,” Suhø replied, gaze meeting Kris’s uncle’s for a split moment before he turned his attention back to the television.

They watched the program until the commercial came on, and Kris’s uncle spoke up, “So, Yifan, you’re going to be here for the whole week, yeah?” Kris nodded. “We’ll have to head to the courts then, maybe play a little one on one basketball.”

Kris hesitated to reply to that, but Junmyeon spoke up, “I hope you don’t mind if I join too? I love basketball.”

Kris threw a disbelieving glance at Suhø, he didn’t believe for a second that the actual Junmyeon would love basketball, but was grateful for the little addition request. He didn’t want to do anything with his uncle that was one on one.

“Of course, the more the merrier,” his uncle replied, but the smile was tight.

Yixian chimed in, “If Junmyeon is joining, I can to. It’ll be us two against Kris and Junmyeon.”

“That sounds like fun,” Kris’s mother smiled, “I’ll sit on the side and cheer you four on, but I already know my Yifan will win.”

“ _Mama,_ ” Kris’s head lowered shyly, cheeks flushing.

“Somehow I knew that Junmyeon would dress like that for bed,” Kris commented, looking over the red haired boy as he finished getting dressed for bed. It was a pair of blue and black flannel pajamas.

Junmyeon’s head shook, a grin tugging his lips as he looked down at himself, “It would’ve been better if they were red.” He placed his other clothes down beside his suitcase, he glanced over at Kris to see him shedding off his pants to reveal his boxers and then slipped off his shirt. He pulled a black tank top from his suitcase and slipped on. “You’d look good in red too.”

Kris looked down at himself, “I like black better, but red is nice too.” He motioned towards the bed, “Which side do you want?”

Suhø shrugged, “Either is fine with me. You can also have all the blankets, Junmyeon won’t need them.”

“Okay,” Kris pulled back the blankets, “You can have the left side, I’ll have to get up in the night to go to the bathroom.”

“Oh yeah, I hear you throughout the night in the dorms, your bladder is almost on a timer, isn’t it?” Suhø chuckled. “Ten minutes after two every morning.”

Kris slowly nodded, laughing softly, “I didn’t realize it was the same every night, I’m half-sleep the whole time anyway.”

Suhø crawled into the bed, settling on the side of the bed against the wall, “Do you want all the blankets?”

Kris slid in beside him, “I’ll share.” He pulled the blankets up on both of them, lying his head down on the pillow. He turned out the light on the lamp, darkening the room, and within moments, Kris was out like a light.

“Good night, Yifan,” Suhø murmured, turning over on his side to see Kris’s sleeping face.

His mouth was slightly open, like it was on the plane, not yet drooling though. A quiet snore came from the taller boy, just like he’d told Suhø about, it wasn’t too loud, didn’t even bother Suhø. The demon reached out, brushing a strand of hair out of Kris’s face, tucking it behind his ear. He let his fingertips linger for a moment against Kris’s cheek, he looked so peaceful as he slept.

“I can see why you fell in love with him every lifetime,” he whispered to himself, pulling his hand back to himself and resting it against his chest.

The sound of someone stepping up to the closed door had Junmyeon’s eyes closing, feigning sleep as the door knob slowly twisted open. He peeked his eye open slightly to see Kris’s mother stepping into the room. She quietly made it up to the side of the bed where Kris was to press her lips against his temple.

“Good night, baby,” she quietly murmured. It surprised Junmyeon when she leaned over Kris to press a kiss to his temple too, “Good night, sweetie.”

She left out of the room after that, closing the door softly.

The next four days flew by in no time, for the first three days, Kris’s uncle was out of the house at work. The only time that he was around for the whole day was Thursday when he had the day off, and the five of them ended up on the basketball court near the apartment building. While Kris started out the game uncomfortable, the nerves slowly gave way to getting his head in the game, along with the first three scores he’d made.

It also helped that anytime that his uncle came a little too close for comfort, Junmyeon’s bright red head was there to avert the movements, stealing the basketball away.

For a shorter boy, Kris was surprised by how well Junmyeon played. He wondered vaguely if it was Suhø that was playing like that or Junmyeon. The vacant eyes came and went with the boy.

Kris’s mother was seated on the bleachers, cheering on both sides, but every time Kris made a score, she cheered a bit louder, a bit prouder. By the end of the game, Kris and Junmyeon won by five points.

“You two make quite the team,” Kris’s mother commented, coming over to the two and handing them a bottle of water. As Kris drank, she dabbed Kris’s temple with a towel, wiping away the sweat. “I knew my baby was going to win.”

Junmyeon grinned up at Kris, “He plays really well, I just helped out.”

Kris’s uncle came up to them, raising a fist to Kris for a fist-bump, “Good game, Kris.”

The tall boy returned the fist-bump, muttering quietly, “Thanks, Uncle Yijin.”

He clutched his lower back, chuckling softly, “I’m not as young as I used to be, or I’d ask you for another game.”

“It’s getting a bit late though, guys, let’s head back to the apartment and we’ll get started on dinner,” Kris’s aunt proposed, stepping up by her husband, and rubbing at his lower back to soothe his aching back.

Junmyeon perked up, “I can finally teach Mama Wu how to make kimbap, it’s really simple.”

“Sounds good.”

Junmyeon was instructing Kris’s mother on how to make the kimbap, while Kris and his uncle and aunt were in the living room, watching television. His aunt was rubbing some muscle cream on his uncle’s back. If it weren’t for his aunt being in the same room, Kris would’ve been shadowing Junmyeon in the kitchen.

“You better enjoy your youth while you can, Yifan, backaches aren’t fun at all,” Kris’s uncle stated, wincing as he finally set back in the recliner.

His aunt laughed softly, “You just overworked yourself, I told you to take it easy on the court.”

“We wouldn’t have gotten many points if I went easy. Playing with Kris on the court is like playing with a pro,” his uncle complimented, “If you hadn’t chosen business, you could’ve been a pro at basketball.”

“That’s the truth,” his aunt replied, “Grandfather wouldn’t be happy with that career choice, but if he saw the way you played, I’m sure he would’ve understood.”

Kris shrugged, “I would’ve liked to play pro basketball, but at least by forty, as a businessman, I won’t have to worry about my ankle slipping and it ending my career.”

“That’s my baby, always thinking of the future,” his mother chimed in, her and Junmyeon walking into the dinning room with the plates of kimbap. “Come, eat. Junmyeon was right, it’s really easy to make kimbap.”

“She said she’ll teach me how to make those dumplings in the morning,” Junmyeon smiled, beckoning Kris over.

The five of them gathered around the dinning table, each having a roll of the kimbap. Kris’s mother looked over at Kris to see how he liked the ones she made, feeling proud of herself. Junmyeon was the first to compliment the slices she made.

“I hate that we’ve only got two more days together,” Kris’s mother stated, chewing her slice of kimbap, she reached over to cup Junmyeon’s hand, “You’ll have to come back and visit us, yeah? It’s been a pleasure having you, Junmyeon.”

Junmyeon smiled softly, “I’d love to. There’s summer break in a few months.”

Kris glanced over at Junmyeon with wide eyes. The last few days felt like he actually did have a friend with him during the visiting, but it still stayed in the back of Kris’s mind that this was still a dead boy being possessed by a demon. And it was more than obvious that his mother had fallen in love with the boy, but then why wouldn’t she have? Junmyeon was basically the ideal son, Kris’s mother doted on him, but had began doting on Junmyeon just as much, like he was her second son.


	9. Chapter Nine

“She’s not going to tell me what’s wrong with her, is she?” Kris asked as he lied back in bed that night.

That night after getting the dishes cleaned up and the leftovers put away, Kris watched as his mother kept nodding off while they were watching television. He knew that it was getting late, that she’d be nodding off, but even with the small assurances of her getting rest now that Kris was back home, her appearance didn’t change.

She still had dark circles, her skin still sickly pale, and the last two days that they’d been there, she had a terrible headache that she tried to downplay. But any time that Kris tried to inquire about it, she brushed it off as something minor.

Even his aunt brushed off any questions, but it didn’t stop the expression on her face that told him that she knew more than what she was telling him.

Suhø buttoned up his pajama shirt, “She’ll tell you when she’s ready. Your mind should be on your studies, she doesn’t want to deter that.” He moved over to the bed, crawling over Kris as he settled on his side of the bed.

He looked over at Junmyeon as the boy lied down, much like he did on Kris’s bed, “ _You_ know what’s wrong with her, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, all your souls are on full display when you make eye contact with me.”

“But you won’t tell me either, will you?” Junmyeon’s head shook in the negative. Kris moved up onto his side, head propped up by his elbow as he looked down at Junmyeon, “Will you, at least, tell me if it’s something minor or not?”

Suhø hummed as he stared at the ceiling for a moment, then turned his gaze to Kris, “I can’t tell you, but just know that I’ll take care of it.”

Kris thought about that response for a moment, deciding to leave it alone, he’d leave it in Suhø’s hands, for now. “So you’re going to come back with me on summer break too? How long are you going to stick with me?”

“I haven’t really given it any thought, honestly. I like shadowing you around,” Suhø smiled up at Kris, “Plus, your mother seems to like having me around too.”

Kris rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips as he lied back down, “Of course she does, you’re basically a second son to her.”

“She’s a sweet lady.”

“She is,” Kris agreed, but of course he would, that was his mother. He loved her dearly. He settled the blankets up around him, pulling them up over Junmyeon’s body as well. “I guess I’ll shadow you two in the morning when she teaches you how to make the dumplings.”

Suhø smiled over at him, “I won’t mind that, good night, Yifan.”

“Good night, Suhø.”

Later that night, without fail, Kris’s bladder had him waking up, and throwing the blankets off himself to get up. Sleepily, he made his way out of the room, and down the hall where he entered the bathroom, and finally relieved his heavy bladder. He braced himself against the wall over the toilet as he yawned into his arm.

In his sleep-filled mind, he didn’t hear the knob of the bathroom turning, or the door creaking open. He finally finished, yawning again as he tucked himself back into his boxers, and just as he went to flush the toilet, he was startled by the quiet voice filling the room.

“You certainly have grown, haven’t you?”

The familiarity of the voice had Kris startling back. Eyes wide when he saw his uncle standing in front of the closed door of the bathroom. He was dressed down for bed, in attire much like Kris’s. His gaze raising from staring at Kris’s nether regions to meet the boy’s eyes.

“I usually prefer them younger, much more influential, but seeing you out on the court today, I couldn’t just let you slip through my fingers again,” his uncle stated, edging closer, making Kris step backwards, until his back met the bathroom wall. “You played it safe all these years, I knew what you were doing, keeping close to someone’s side so I wouldn’t approach you… at least, not like _this,_ ” he emphasized at the small distance between them.

Kris’s body shook, his mind reeling at the memories of being cornered before by this man, but he was in his eight-year old body. He could overpower his uncle _now_ … he tried to believe that, he tried to put on a brave face.

“I-I’ll scream… wake e-everyone up-” Kris stuttered out, but the smirk on his uncle’s face merely widened.

“You do that, explain the situation to your mother and aunt,” his uncle laughed, reaching out to pat the side of Kris’s face, making the boy squeak, turning his head to shake off the touch. “No one would believe you.”

The memory that resurfaced was of his uncle telling him that exact same thing the last time that he’d grabbed him and started pulling his pants off. Kris remembered crying for him to stop, telling him that he was going to tell his mother about him, but just as his uncle held him down on the bed, he growled those words in his ear. _No one would believe you._

Kris brought his arms up to shield himself when he saw his uncle start to reach out for him again, eyes squeezing shut, but he froze at the sudden voice that filled the room.

“ ** _ **Lay one more finger on that boy and I’ll rip your whole arm off**_** ,” the voice snarled.

When Kris opened his eyes and lowered his arms from in front of him, he saw that the whole bathroom surroundings had faded away into blackness. His uncle was looking around in confusion, and then, at what was the entrance to the bathroom, appeared that old familiar red suit that Kris knew. The demon slowly phasing into existence, a fiery red aura building up around him, burning bright, those crystal blue eyes were glowing, glaring at his uncle.

“Wh-who are you?” his uncle questioned, stepping back away from the demon.

“ ** _ **Your worst nightmare,**_** ” Suhø’s voice took on that deep, haunting tone that Kris remembered from that night with Henry. His pale hand stretched out towards Kris, palm upwards, beckoning Kris to his side. His gaze softening when his eyes met Kris’s, “Come here, darling.”

His uncle tried to reach out to him to stop him from going to the demon but at the pointed glare and the flaring up of the flames around Suhø, his hand fell before it even fully rose. Kris quickly made it to Suhø’s side, hand slipping into the demon’s, as he pulled Kris behind him.

“I waited for you to do something foolish like this, Zhao Yijin,” Suhø spoke, a red-tinted shadow of a hand moving across the floor, something Kris’s uncle didn’t see at first, until he felt the hand move up his body. He tried to fight it off but the hand didn’t stop until it wrapped around Yijin’s throat, squeezing slightly, cutting off his cries effectively.

“A-Are you going to kill him?” Kris asked, hand clutching the jacket sleeve of Suhø’s blazer.

Suhø shook his head, turning away from the man to look up at Kris, his gaze was gentle when it met Kris’s eyes, “I won’t, but I will cripple him… _severely,_ ” that statement had Kris’s eyes widening. “You go on back to bed now, Yifan, Junmyeon’s waiting for you, and I’ll be back shortly.”

The door to the bathroom appeared behind them, and Kris threw one last glance at his uncle before he quickly hurried out of the door. He made his way back to the extra bedroom, and when he went inside, he quickly locked the door behind himself. When he turned back around, he saw Junmyeon sitting up in the bed, those vacant eyes stared at him, and it surprised him when the red haired boy pushed the blankets back from Kris’s side of the bed and beckoned him over.

His mind had been racing but after he crossed the room to the bed, he crawled into it, and Junmyeon’s arms naturally came around him. Kris let the boy hold him close, his breath coming out in puffs as his nerves were still going haywire, but as Junmyeon’s fingers ran through his hair and the hand on his back rubbed circles, it was slowly calming him down.

But after he calmed down, the tears started building up in the corner of his eyes.

“Shh, it’s okay, Yifan, I’m here,” the soft voice that came from Junmyeon’s let him know that it wasn’t Suhø talking through him. It was Junmyeon… or what was left of Junmyeon that Suhø allowed to remain.

“You’ve got quite a habit of tormenting your niece and nephews, don’t you, Yijin?” Suhø asked as he circled around the man’s body, the red shadow was squeezing the man’s throat every so often, cutting off any air and any chance of the man talking. “I’ve seen the entire contents of your soul, and you truly are an awful one, aren’t you?” When all that came was a gurgled gasp, the grip on Yijin’s throat relaxed, “You can answer that one, I’d like to hear you admit to that.”

“L-Let me go!” the man gasped out, coughing for air.

“That’s not an answer,” Suhø tsked, coming around to stand in front of Yijin, usually Suhø was shorter than Kris, and that would make him shorter than Yijin, but this world that they were currently in, Suhø towered over Yijin. “I’ll give you another chance to answer me.”

Yijin glared at him, the fear was slowly fading into anger, but he couldn’t lash out at the red haired individual, his wrists were bound by something he couldn’t see. “Fuck you.”

Suhø tsked again, “That’s not the answer I wanted either.” He sighed, as if almost bored with the whole ordeal, “Fine, have it your way.” He reached out, his red tipped hand gripping the half-hard that the man had when he entered the bathroom earlier, he squeezed painfully tight, earning a strangled shout that turned into a whimper from the man. “I punish souls like yours for all eternity, but since it’s not yet your time to go, I’ll simply do this.” He let go of the limp member, his hand following the trail of the red shadow and stopping on the center of Yijin’s chest.

His hand slowly sunk into the man’s chest, pulling gasps and whimpers from the man as he twisted his hand around, pulling and pushing things around. When he pulled his hand away from the man’s chest, a blackish milky-like orb followed.

“I should’ve known your soul would be rotten,” Suhø shook his head in disappointment, “You’ll be doing penance for the rest of your life. I’ll have need of you very soon.” He ran his fingers through the black orb, gaining a shudder from the man. Almost as if he had been touched by the cold hand of death. “Mark my words, you’ll never know another pleasurable moment from this minute forward, you’ll never know a peaceful night’s sleep. No amount of forgiveness will ever redeem your soul for as long as you breathe in that earthly body.”

Suhø pressed the black orb back against Yijin’s chest, allowing it to sink back inside him. The man’s eyes rolling back in his head, breath coming out in huffs, he whimpered, almost pleading for the demon to stop. Suhø pulled his hand away, gaze returning to Yijin’s, a wicked smirk crossing his lips.

“I’ll take great pleasure in burning your soul for all eternity. Once you take your last breath, you’re _mine._ ”

Kris was still shaken up by the events that took place in the bathroom, still weeping quietly as he clutched to Junmyeon’s pajama shirt. It was still Junmyeon’s quiet voice that was coaxing him at first, but then he felt a cold shiver, like something was passing through his body, and then the grip on him changed. Instead of the weak feeling of Junmyeon’s fingers, there was more strength there, the body felt more… alive, if that made any sense? Kris wasn’t sure how to describe it.

But when he pulled back and looked up, he saw the flash of glowing blue in those dark eyes and he realized why. Suhø was back in Junmyeon’s body.

His thumb came up to wipe at the tear streaks on Kris’s face, “You’re okay now. I’ve dealt with him.”

Kris buried his face back into Junmyeon’s shirt, more tears falling, “I… I thought he was going to… he… I just… I froze-”

“I know, darling, you don’t have to justify anything to me,” Suhø cooed, his voice was so much more softer now than how he spoke to Kris’s uncle, “I wasn’t going to let him do anything to you.” He felt Kris’s nod, and heard the whimper that Kris tried to bite back, his fingers found those black strands again, running through them, “Go ahead and cry, Yifan, I’ve sealed off the room, no one will hear it. Cry and wash your soul clean of this, you’ll feel better afterwards.”

Suhø settled them back on the bed, Kris’s head resting on his chest as he finally gave up and did what Suhø told him to do. He cried, he cried like he did the first time it’d happened to him, the first time his uncle touched him, he cried like the times it happened again and again. He cried so much until he was sure he didn’t have anymore tears to cry.

All the while, Suhø soothed him, held him close, and let him know that he wasn’t alone. Not anymore. Not with this.

He wasn’t sure what Suhø had done to his uncle, but he knew that, thanks to the demon, he wouldn’t bother Kris anymore.

The grip on the flannel pajama shirt slowly slackened as Kris’s cries quietened down, eventually it tapered off into soft snores. Suhø still held him close, running his fingers through the boy’s hair, while his other hand came to lay on top of Kris’s hand that gripped Junmyeon’s shirt. Despite Junmyeon’s body being smaller than Kris’s, Kris looked so small, curled up to him.

With a wave of his hand, the blankets moved closer upwards, he tucked them around Kris, while he lied back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“So this is what it’s like to fall in love with a soul,” he murmured to himself.

After tonight, Kris would wake up feeling anew. Suhø would have to do a little tweaking so his eyes won’t be so puffy in the morning, but the cry is what mattered. He hated hearing the sounds that came from Kris as he cried his heart out, feeling everything that Kris felt, and if he had looked into his eyes, he would’ve seen everything playing over from the record of his soul. His chest clenched up in sadness and in anger.

He wanted to call Kris’s uncle back to him, to do more to the man other than crush his manhood in his fist. He wanted to break every bone in the man’s body, he wanted to snatch the man’s breath away, so he couldn’t breathe another breath of fresh air. But he couldn’t do that. His soul wasn’t like Henry’s or Kyle’s. He hadn’t sold his soul to him, to do with as he wished.

Instead, all Suhø could do was wait out the man’s life, and then in the afterlife, he could destroy the man’s soul, bring it back, destroy it again, and bring it back. Throw it in his lake of fire where his brother’s tormentor’s soul stayed. That man’s soul would know no moment of rest once he died.


	10. Chapter Ten

The next morning, Kris woke up to an empty bed. The pillow that Junmyeon had rested his head on was pushed up beside Kris’s side, something that Kris found himself hugging when he finally stirred awake. He looked around in confusion as to where the red haired boy was, yawning as he finally sat up and stretched his arms out over his head. He rubbed at the sleep in his eyes.

The one thing he noticed was that his body seemed… lighter? The events from last night flashed back through his mind, but instead of recoiling at the events, they didn’t bother him. Just being held last night by Junmyeon and then by Suhø, it made him relax, breathe a little easier.

Maybe what Suhø told him was true? About just crying it out helping. He believed it was more so due to the fact that Suhø was there for him, comforting him, keeping him safe, making sure he knew he was safe.

He just wondered where the blue and black flannel clad boy was, but then it dawned on him. His mother was supposed to be teaching him how to make dumplings this morning.

The kitchen was exactly where Kris found the two. He didn’t know where his aunt was, and he didn’t care to know about his uncle. Junmyeon was out of his bedtime clothes and dressed in his typical ‘dork-ish’ attire. A pair of black slacks, a white undershirt, with a dark pink long-sleeve shirt, but it was rolled up at the elbow.

His hands and his mother’s hands were covered in flour as Kris watched her instruct him on how to make the dough for the dumplings. Kris stood in the doorway, propped up as he watched the two for a moment. Until Junmyeon looked up, feigning surprise when he spotted Kris there, but Kris knew that Suhø already knew he was right there.

“Oh, Yifan, good morning,” Junmyeon smiled.

“Morning, sweetie, I hope I didn’t disturb you when I pulled your little cuddle buddy away this morning,” his mother teased, she nodded towards the microwave, “I put your breakfast up, me and Junmyeon had an early breakfast so we could get started on the dumplings.”

Kris’s cheeks tinted red at the little ‘ _cuddle buddy_ ’ comment, but he nodded, stepping up to place a kiss on his mother’s cheek, “Good morning to you too, and thank you for the breakfast.”

After he got his breakfast, he sat down at the kitchen table and watched as his mother and Junmyeon started making the dumplings while he ate his food. At first, he started watching their hands as they moved to work the dough, and then when they started making the filling for the dumplings, but slowly, his gaze trailed up those pale hands, following where the veins poked out and shifted under the skin as those hands moved, on up to Junmyeon’s face. The red haired boy’s lip was poked out again, like how Suhø did went he pouted. But instead of a pout, it was poked out as Junmyeon concentrated on the task at hand.

He wondered if that was Suhø bleeding over into Junmyeon, or if that was something that Junmyeon naturally did when he concentrated. There were a few things about Junmyeon that he wondered what part was influenced by Suhø and what was naturally Junmyeon.

Considering Junmyeon was dead, would he still have his same habits? Was the body merely operating on memory when Suhø wasn’t inhabiting it?

And then he wondered if Suhø’s twin brother had those little quirks? Did the two share the same quirks, since they were twins? He still never got to ask Suhø why Junmyeon looked so similar to him with the facial features.

When Junmyeon’s head came up and his eyes connected with Kris’s, the taller boy quickly averted his gaze, going back to finishing up his breakfast. But he did catch the small twitching of the boy’s lips that wanted to turn into a knowing smirk. He didn’t know he’d been staring.

“See, some of these you can steam and then the others, you can fry,” Kris’s mother drew their attention towards her. She gathered up some of the dumplings and moved over to the stove where she placed them in the pot she’d had readied. “I’ll show you how to cook both.”

Kris listened to the instructions that she gave Junmyeon as they cooked the dumplings, he finished up his breakfast, pushing the plate to the side as he watched.

Junmyeon glanced over at him, smiling, “Why aren’t you joining us?”

“Oh, he already knows how to make dumplings,” his mother waved off, she chuckled, “I made sure he knew how to cook before he left to study aboard.”

The red haired boy paused, “Huh. How come you don’t cook at the dorms, Yifan?”

Kris opened his mouth to defend himself, but his mother shook her head, teasing, “That’s because even though I’ve taught him how to cook, he’s still lazy.”

“I’m not lazy, I just… I just study all the time,” Kris mumbled, but it wasn’t doing much to deter the teasing smile on Kris’s mother’s face, and the matching one growing on Junmyeon’s face. “Besides, Junmyeon always fixes food without me even asking.”

Junmyeon laughed, shrugging, “Well, I _do_ get hungry sometimes.”

Kris’s mother chuckled, shaking her head, “Yifan, baby, you shouldn’t have Junmyeon cooking all the meals. I bet this is the first time he’s had any of the dishes this week because you haven’t been cooking for him.” Junmyeon nodded in agreement at that. She tsked, “You should start cooking more for him.”

There was something about the statement that Kris thought meant more than what his mother said. Something she was implying about Junmyeon and himself.

Kris cleared his throat, deciding to change the subject, “So uh… the apartment’s been pretty quiet, and auntie didn’t have to work today, are they still asleep?” He glanced at the clock over the kitchen sink, it was almost noon. Surely they wouldn’t be sleeping that late.

“Oh, your uncle woke up this morning, having problems with his… uh…” Kris’s mother looked slightly embarrassed to say, but she simply motioned towards her lower half, “and she took him to the hospital to see about it.”

Kris nodded slowly, unsure of what to say, but Junmyeon hummed, “Well, he is getting a bit old, isn’t he?”

Kris’s mother nudged him with her elbow, laughing softly, “He’s not that old, sweetie,” but then she paused, “Although… he _is_ getting up in the age. But I’m sure it’s nothing serious.”

Junmyeon threw a small glance over at Kris, winking, before turning back to the stove to flip the dumplings in the frying pan. Kris picked up his plate and cup to wash them up in the sink and put them away. His mother checked the timer for the steamed dumplings, stealing a peek inside the pot then turned off the heat for the stove eye.

“These are done, give the fried ones one more minute and they’ll be done,” she said, moving the pot off the eye.

After finishing up with the dumplings and plating them, they moved over to the table to try out the dumplings. Kris’s mother nodded towards Junmyeon in satisfaction when she bit into the fried dumpling. Kris nibbled away at the steamed one, humming in agreement.

“You did a good job, Junmyeon,” his mother complimented, finishing up the fried one and then moving onto the steamed one. She turned towards Kris, “I’m a bit sad that we only have today and tomorrow before you leave me again.”

He nodded a bit gloomily, swallowing his mouthful, “Me too, but I’ll be back this summer break.”

“And you’ll bring Junmyeon, yeah?” she glanced over at the red haired boy, “I’d understand if your family had something planned for you for summer break, but if not, you’re always welcomed here, sweetie.”

Junmyeon smiled, “I’ll be back for summer break. We never have anything planned for summer break…” he shrugged, “other than more studying.”

She frowned, “That’s not healthy. I mean, it’s good that your parents expect you to succeed, but you need to make time for fun and relaxation too.” She motioned towards Kris as he ate another steamed dumpling, “I tried to tell him that all the time when he was nose-deep in a book, I was happy that he was taking his studies seriously, but at the same time, I wanted him to enjoy his youth too.”

“I understand,” Junmyeon nodded, throwing a small smile over at Kris, “Well, since I don’t do anything fun with my family, I’ll have to rely on you two for the fun in my life.”

Kris’s mother winked, “I’ll have us a whole adventure planned out for summer break then.”

Kris insisted that Junmyeon and his mother leave the clean-up in the kitchen to him since they spent a good bit of the morning, making the dumplings. The two had retreated into the living room to watch a drama that his mother spoke highly of to Junmyeon about. Kris was washing up the plates and pans when his mother came back into the kitchen, grabbing two cans of drink from the fridge.

After she closed the fridge door and before she walked back into the living room to give Junmyeon one of the drinks, she leaned against the fridge to watch Kris for a moment. He felt someone’s gaze on him, and when he turned around, he saw his mother staring at him.

“Mama? You okay?” He asked, pausing in rinsing the plate off.

She nodded, setting the drinks down on the counter to step up to his side, “Mhm, I just… baby, when were you planning on telling me about yourself?”

Kris froze at that, reeling back through everything, wondering what she was talking about. Then he wondered what exactly her and Junmyeon, or Suhø, talked about that morning, did he tell her about what happened to him? Did he tell her about what his uncle did to him? About what happened last night? About-

“I always thought you’d bring home a _girl_ , but I have to admit that after these last few days with Junmyeon around, I don’t think you could’ve found a girl as precious as he is,” she stated, causing Kris’s eyes to widen comically.

 _Oh._ He didn’t know whether to breathe a sigh of relief at the subject or to correct her, or to brush it off… or… he wasn’t sure what to do.

His mother chuckled softly at his reaction, “I figured you’d tell me eventually… or if you were worried about how I would react, I want you to know that I’m accepting of your relationship-”

“Wha… Mama, me and Junmyeon aren’t in a relationship,” Kris had to clear that up, but his mother’s eyes widened, and she took that statement as something else _entirely_.

“Oh! Have you not confessed to him yet?” She questioned, glancing back towards the living room to see Junmyeon still watching the television. Kris shook his head, starting to reply, but she continued, “I still approve of him, whenever you decide to finally confess to him. He really is a sweet boy.”

Kris still shook his head, “No, Mama, we’re really not… I’m not… I’m not gay.”

“Oh? But the way you two are around one another… I thought for sure you were in love with one another,” she retorted, looking genuinely surprised. “I saw the way you looked at him and the way he looks at you… and then the last few nights when I came to kiss you two good night, the way you curled up to him while asleep… I just… I just assumed you were… together.”

“We’re not, I’m not gay, Mama, I… well, I’m not sure if Junmyeon is,” he left out the little part where Suhø told him that yes, Junmyeon was, “I will admit that I like Junmyeon a lot, but I don’t see him in _that_ way.”

She hummed, shrugging, “Okay, but if you’re not sure of the whole ordeal, yourself, I know you haven’t really dated much, or told me about any crushes you’ve had, just know that I’m completely accepting of whatever partner you choose.” Kris nodded, then froze as she continued, “But if Junmyeon does like you more than you think, then please, correct him, the way he talked about you earlier to me while you were still asleep, I’d swear that boy is head over heels for you. I don’t want to see him hurt.”

“What did he say… about me?” Kris was curious now, he wondered what exactly Suhø talked to her about, especially if it resulted in that reaction from his mother. Was there something more to the conversation and about Suhø?

“I can’t tell you,” she teased, “That was mother and son-in-law chat this morning, not for your ears. I didn’t break out the baby books either.”

Kris mimicked wiping sweat from him his forehead at that comment, chuckling, “I’ll have to grill Junmyeon about it later then.”

“Don’t you dare,” she wagged her finger at him, she shook her head, “It’s a shame you don’t feel anything towards him, I wouldn’t have minded him as my son-in-law.”

Kris shrugged, turning back to the remainder of the dishes, “He’s cute, but I’m too focused on school right.”

“And apparently he is too, you’d be perfect for one another with your noses stuck in the books. But you two could also be each other’s distractions,” his mother reminded him. She picked up the drinks, chiming in before leaving the kitchen, “If you come back on summer break as an item, I’m giving you my blessing now.”

“ _Mama!_ ”

After Kris’s aunt returned to the apartment with his uncle, they had been informed that his uncle had suffered a mini-stroke that affected the lower half of his body. In so many words, his aunt quietly stated that his uncle would have suffer a limp and some _performance_ issues. Kris wondered what exactly Suhø did to him after he left the bathroom, but wanted to be spared the details of it. He didn’t care what happened to his uncle, health wise or not.

The whole dinner as they sat at the dining table, his uncle refused to look towards Kris and Junmyeon, and Kris didn’t mind in the slightest. There was a small expression of satisfaction on Junmyeon’s face that Kris noticed, but it quickly faded before anyone else took notice.

That night as the two got ready for bed, Kris decided to get back to the subject he wanted to know more about. The topics that the red head and his mother talked about that morning.

Junmyeon shook his head, chuckling softly, he was in the middle of pulling on his pajama pants, “It was nothing really, I was just commenting on how well I think you do in your courses.”

Kris hummed, slipping off his shirt to change into the tank top, “You sure it wasn’t more to it? Mama seemed to think you were head over heels for me. Even gave me her blessing on the possible chance of a relationship between us.”

Junmyeon’s eyes widened, he paused once he got his pants on, “I didn’t think there was more to it? Honestly, I was just bragging about how good of a student you are.”

Kris eyed him for a moment, trying to figure out if the demon was lying to him or not, but the expression on Junmyeon’s face didn’t change. Then his eyes widened when Junmyeon slipped off his shirt and reached for his pajama shirt to slip on. The last few nights, they’d changed in the same room, it didn’t bother Kris, they were boys, they had the same body parts, it wasn’t embarrassing. But right now, maybe it was because of what his mother said, but he found his mouth going dry as those back muscles moved until it was covered up by the flannel pajama shirt.

Kris quickly shook his head when Junmyeon turned around, buttoning up the front of the pajamas, “Honestly, Yifan, I didn’t think anything of it…” he shrugged, “I didn’t know she’d read more into the conversation than just casual conversation.”

“But I thought you could see all of our thoughts…” Kris murmured, finishing getting ready for bed.

“I can,” Junmyeon moved over to settle in his spot on the bed, “But all I saw in your mother’s eyes this morning was adoration for her baby, and I was focused more on the task at hand of learning how to make dumplings.”

Kris’s cheeks tinted slightly at that, yeah, that was his mother, “Oh…” he got in bed beside Junmyeon, reaching over to shut the lamp off. “Did you cause the stroke for my uncle?”

Junmyeon turned to him, his dark eyes flashing bright blue for a moment, a smirk crossing his lips. In that moment, he looked more like Suhø lying beside him instead of Junmyeon, “I did. That’s what the doctors chalked it up to. I crushed his little erection last night, quite literally,” he held up his hand and balled it up into a fist, something that Kris winced when he realized exactly what the demon was said. “I told him that he wouldn’t experience another pleasurable moment, and he won’t. For as long as he lives, he’s going to limp around, go completely numb from the waist down. By the time we come back for summer break, he’ll be in a wheelchair.”

Kris blinked, eyes wide, “Wow.”

“That’s what he gets for fucking with my darling,” the smirk on Junmyeon’s face widened, eyes flashing bright blue again as he reached over and patted Kris’s cheeks softly. “He won’t be able to hurt anyone anymore now. And I will be having a field day with haunting his dreams.”

Kris reached up and placed his hand over Junmyeon’s on his cheek, “Thank you.”


	11. Chapter Eleven

That Saturday morning, Junmyeon woke up before Kris did, surprised to find that Kris’s mother was awake too. Kris’s aunt and uncle were still in bed too, but since they got back from the hospital, Kris’s uncle spent most of his time in bed, he kept complaining of numbness in his legs. Junmyeon found Kris’s mother in the living room, nursing a cup of warm tea.

As soon as she saw him awake, the two of them decided to start on breakfast. Since she taught him how to make dumplings before, she helped him instruct him about how to make different forms of baozi. The first few were plain, a few were stuffed with pork, and the others were a soup base.

“You’re really good at cooking, Junmyeon,” she complimented as she watched him follow her instructions precisely.

He looked up from where he was kneading the dough to flash a small smile, “Umma taught me while growing up how to cook, that was before she got too busy with following Appa around the world.”

Kris’s mother’s gaze softened sadly, “The way you talk about your parents… I know you said you don’t get lonely, but it makes me feel lonely for you.”

Junmyeon shook his head, shrugging, “I guess since it’s been like this for so long, I’m used to it.”

She reached over to touch his elbow, “I know that every family is different, but just know… me and Yifan can be your family, if you need someone.”

He looked over at her, “Thank you.”

She started helping him section off the dough into smaller parts, setting out different areas for the different versions of the baozi. Deciding to test the waters, especially after the small talk with her son before, she wanted to know how Junmyeon felt about her son.

“I feel like this is a bit overdue since we’ve spent almost a week together now, but Junmyeon, have you got a girlfriend at the campus? Or a girl you’re interested in?”

Junmyeon’s eyes widened, he looked up at her in surprise, “A girlfriend?”

She backpedaled at that, taking his tone as meaning something else, “If not a girlfriend, how about a boyfriend? Or a boy that you’re interested in?”

His cheeks flushed, almost resembling his hair, “Well… I, um…”

“If you’re not sure or uncomfortable, you don’t have to answer, sweetie.”

He shrugged, chuckling softly, “Well, I am a bit unsure… but I just don’t know if he likes me or not. I’m very fond of him though.”

“Oh, I see,” she nodded, then grabbed one of the sections of dough to show him how to mold it. “Have you told him about your fondness for him?” There was a teasing smile on her face, and when she looked up to him at the question, Suhø saw it in her eyes. She believed he was talking about Kris.

Suhø decided to indulge on that. He knew about the little conversation between Kris and his mother, about thinking that Kris was in a relationship with Junmyeon. Kris had told him a little bit about it before falling off to sleep, and while Suhø found it a bit comical, he knew that his mother wanted her son taken care of.

“I haven’t… I don’t think he likes guys,” Junmyeon shrugged, copying the way she showed him about shaping the dough. He laughed quietly, “But that kind of thing has happened to me before. I meet a great guy and he’s not interested in the same sex.”

She hummed, “I can understand that.” She grabbed another section of the dough and showed him how to tuck the diced up pork and spices into the center of the dough. Her next question had the demon freezing at how bold it was, “What do you think of Yifan?” Then she turned teasing eyes over at him, “Or is he the guy you’re talking about?”

Junmyeon stumbled on his words at those two questions, “Uh… um… well, uh…” his cheeks practically glowed as he tried to find his words, “He… I, uh… I do like him… yeah.”

Kris’s mother giggled, “I thought so.” She shook her head, setting down the baozi with the pork mixture in the middle, then grabbing another section of dough, “I thought you two were already together, honestly, when he asked if you could come along with him for spring break, but he corrected me on that.”

Suhø knew that, and he knew the small chit-chat between the two last when Kris did correct her about them being in a relationship. Junmyeon cleared his throat, trying to focus on the next type of baozi that she was making, his cheeks were still red. “Would you have… minded if we were in a relationship?”

She shook her head, “I would love having you as a son-in-law.” Junmyeon’s eyes widened at that, earning a teasing wink from her, but she continued, “Yifan is… I feel like I went wrong somewhere with him. He’s lonely, I know he is, and I’ve tried to be there for him as much as I can when he was growing up, but I also had to work. It wasn’t easy being a single parent… and now that he’s so many miles away from me. I worried so much about him.”

Junmyeon nodded in understanding, “I noticed that about him when I first met him. In another country where everyone doesn’t look like _us_ , I figured he’d have a hard time fitting in. He told me that him and his previous roommate got along, but he wasn’t what you would call a close friend-”

“Not like you are,” she added.

“Pretty much. I don’t know, when I walked into my first class of that day, there was just something that kind of pulled me to Yifan,” Junmyeon shrugged. Suhø would’ve liked to add something onto that, but she didn’t know the whole story behind Junmyeon, nor would she ever. It was between him and Kris. “It was just pure luck that I ended up being his roommate too.” He laughed, “I should’ve known it was him when I saw the shoe rack at the front door.”

“Oh, I know all about that. The little time that we spent in Canada when he was growing up, I noticed that our neighbors would wear their shoes throughout the house,” she shuddered, “Seemed so unsanitary.”

He grimaced, “It does.”

“I know that there might not be anything to come from your fondness of Yifan, and he may not return the feelings, but will you take care of him, Junmyeon?” She looked up at him, hands stilling from the task. In that moment, the dark circles were more prominent, her skin was paler than his, and Suhø saw what was slowly killing her.

He knew that she was sick even before they made the trip, every time he saw her on the video-chat in Kris’s room. He knew that there was something more to her story than just tiredness and worry. He saw it on the outlines of Kris’s soul, the events that were going to impact Kris’s soul journey. This was one of them. The loss of his mother.

She glanced back at the entrance of the kitchen, it was still quiet throughout the house, everyone else was still fast asleep. No one would overhear their conversation.

“I’ve been avoiding the subject with Yifan, because I know he’ll worry about me instead of focusing on his studies, and I really want him to succeed in life, but…” she looked down, hand coming to cover Junmyeon’s, “I’m sick, Junmyeon, very sick. The doctors can’t help me, other than prescribing medicine to deal with the pain, so I’m on limited time. They say I have _at least_ a year left, I won’t get to see my baby graduating from college,” her voice shook, a bit watery, and when she looked up at him, her eyes were red with unshed tears, “I know this is a bit much, but will you please, watch over him when I can’t anymore?”

Suhø had already decided that he wasn’t leaving Kris’s side when he first came along the boy, after seeing the plans laid out for his soul, he saw this happening. He’d scowled at Kris’s guardian angel for just sitting on the sidelines and watching it happen. First, Kris suffered as a child, and when the boy was already alone in the world, he’d be solely on his own with the loss of his mother.

A sadden smile crossed Junmyeon’s lips as he nodded, his other hand, despite being covered in flour, came to rest on top of hers that was on his, “You have my word, Mama Wu, I’ll look after Yifan for you.”

She returned his smile, trying to use her shoulder to wipe away any tears since her hands were covered in flour too, “Thank you, Junmyeon. Please, don’t tell Yifan about this… I’ll let him know soon.”

“I feel like it’s back at the beginning of the college year and I’m having to let you go again,” his mother tears up, hugging Kris tight to her. The sounds of the airport surrounded them, the voice on the intercom calling for different flights, and busy people bustled through the area.

Kris hugged his mother back, trying not to tear up too, he didn’t want to cry in public, but it was hard to hold back the tears when his mother’s eyes were welling up, “I’ll be back before you know it. Summer break is only a month and a half away.”

She pulled back, patting his face, “I know, but that’s still so far away.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek, “I’ll be waiting for you.” Then she turned towards Junmyeon as the boy stood beside Kris, reaching up for a hug, “I hope to see you too, on summer break.”

Junmyeon smiled, returning the hug, “I’ll be back then.” He whispered softly, so only she could hear, “Take care of yourself.”

When she pulled back, she nodded, kissing his cheek too. The voice over the intercom called for their flight, and with more small goodbyes, Kris and Junmyeon grabbed their belongings and headed towards their designated area. Kris’s aunt was waiting for his mother in the car outside, his uncle hadn’t even came out of the room that morning to join them for breakfast.

Suhø had to hide the smirk on his face when Kris’s aunt quietly whispered to Kris’s mother about his uncle complaining of a bad case of boils popping up on certain areas of his skin.

As he and Kris packed their bags after breakfast, he told the little bit of information to Kris, getting a big laugh from the taller boy. Suhø wasn’t finished with the small inconveniences to create for the older man, it would come in many forms. His nightmares were just the terrors of the night.

“You were right.”

The statement had Junmyeon looking away from the window of the airplane, over at Kris to see him staring at the small screen that was playing a movie, but Junmyeon could tell that the movie was the furthest from Kris’s mind. He was honestly waiting for Kris’s head to fall back down on his shoulder again, like before, and then hear nothing but soft snoring. Instead, Kris grew quiet almost three hours into the flight.

Junmyeon’s eyes flashed blue for a split second as soon as Kris’s gaze found his. There were a few things going on through Kris’s mind, thoughts of his mother, thoughts of his uncle, thoughts of himself, and the small thoughts of Suhø. The last few thoughts that had flashed through the boy’s head was of his uncle and of Suhø.

“That night… after my uncle tried to…” Kris trailed off, but Junmyeon nodded, knowing what he wanted to say, “When you told me to just cry it out… did you do something to me that night?” At the questioning expression that crossed Junmyeon’s face, Kris clarified, “I mean… ever since that night, I’ve felt… lighter?” He wasn’t sure how to describe it other than that word. He felt lighter. Like a weight had been lifted off of him.

A smile crossed Junmyeon’s face, “I simply told you to cry it out. The only thing I did that was… magical, was making sure your eyes weren’t puffy from the crying the morning after.”

Well, okay, Kris noticed that the next morning when he went to the bathroom. He figured with the amount of crying he did, he would’ve had red and puffy eyes, but he looked completely normal.

But was the cry really all there was to it? Was that really what made him feel the way he did now?

“You’re sure? The start of the trip, I was uncomfortable around Uncle Yijin, but after that night, he was barely an afterthought for me.”

Junmyeon patted his hand, chuckling softly, “I’m glad he became that, but I didn’t do anything to you, Yifan, other than letting you cry on me.” He shrugged, “I figured that was all you needed, you weren’t carrying around that secret anymore, you shared it, with me, and then you shared your sorrow, with me. You weren’t alone in it anymore, you let someone in.”

Kris sat back in his seat, gaze returning to the television as his mind went over that, Junmyeon watched him for a moment, and didn’t remove his hand over Kris’s, he turned back to the airplane window, looking out again. The remainder of the trip was quiet, Kris’s mind had slowly given way to sleep, his head finding Junmyeon’s shoulder again.

When they finally landed and hailed a cab back to the campus, they finally got inside the dorm rooms a little after two am that morning on Sunday. Kris toed off his shoes the doorway, placing his luggage against the shoe rack as he put away his shoes into one of the empty slots. Junmyeon followed suit with his own. The taller boy was dragging as they got off the plane and on the way back to the campus, still quiet.

Suhø chalked it up to being tired from the flight. It was nearly sixteen hours, and they’d left at almost ten that morning on Saturday.

But when Kris straightened up, his gaze found Junmyeon’s, and Suhø could see that the boy wanted to say something. Although, the next sentence that came from Kris’s mouth surprised the demon a little.

“ _Junmyeon_? Can you go sit down?” Kris asked, watching as Junmyeon’s body did a small shiver, the life fading from his eyes as he turned and stepped away from his spot. The red suited demon was in his spot now.

Kris watched as Junmyeon walked over to the couch and sat down. He turned back to Suhø to see the demon looking up at him curiously. It was a bit odd seeing Suhø back in his normal attire of so much red, when the last few days, all he’d really seen of Suhø was in Junmyeon’s dorky outfits. Even now, the dead boy was in tan plaid slacks, a white button-down, with a black and white sweater vest. What made it scream ‘ _dork’_ was the different sheep prints covering the sweater vest.

“Did you miss my beautiful face, darling?” Suhø teased, and even though the makeup around his eyes and lips were red as his suit, and would’ve scared Kris a while back when he thought of their very first encounter, it didn’t phase Kris.

Kris shook his head, chuckling softly, his arms came out, a little awkwardly, but Suhø knew what he was aiming for, meeting him halfway in an embrace, Kris murmured quietly into Suhø’s hair, “I just wanted to say… thank you.” Suhø was the same height as Junmyeon, so his head only came up to Kris’s shoulder, but those arms wrapped around his center still held him firmly. “Thank you for being there for me… with what happened with my uncle, with what’s happened to me so far… thank you for not letting me be alone.”

Suhø would deny his heart skipping a beat, if ever asked, as he held Kris close. Breathing in the scent that was Kris, a little sweaty from the plane ride, a little touch of the fabric softener that Kris used to wash his clothes in, and a little bit of sweetness that his soul gave off.

“You’re more than welcome, Yifan,” Suhø pulled back, and he saw it there in Kris’s eyes. Something that he hadn’t intended on happening when he decided to stick around with the boy. Kris was falling in love with him.

He could tell that Kris didn’t know it or wasn’t recognizing it, but of course, with the courses that Kris had been dealt with, he probably didn’t know what it was like to fall in love with someone. Not in this lifetime. He’d never had a relationship to know what it felt like, or what it would feel like. He’d had crushes on girls, _and boys_ , but those crushes never developed beyond small flutters.

And right now, the way that Kris glanced at his lips, he knew this was more than the little butterflies in his stomach that Kris had before. With those, he never acted on them, but Suhø could see that he wanted to act on the feelings he felt, but he didn’t.

Instead his gaze returned to Suhø’s, and he smiled, “It’s nice to see you back in this form.”

Suhø laughed, “So you’ve had enough of Junmyeon’s fashion then?”

Kris rolled his eyes, laughing too, “ _God yes_ , I want to burn that sweater vest he’s wearing right now.”

“Aw, he thought it was cute when he picked it out,” Suhø tutted, starting towards Kris’s room, his hand finding Kris’s along the way.

“The sheep print though? He thought that was cute?” Kris didn’t say anything about the hand slipping into his, leading the way.

“I told you how odd he was, _alive_ ,” Suhø shrugged, pushing open Kris’s door, “It carries over in death, you know.”

“Obviously,” Kris stated, closing the door behind them.


	12. Chapter Twelve

When Kris finally woke up, it was late in the afternoon that Sunday. After getting in a little after two that morning from the plane ride and then staying up at least another hour, talking to Suhø, he’d slept until three that afternoon. Since he’d shared the bed with Junmyeon all last week, it was a bit odd to find himself alone in his bed, he woke up to himself hugging the second pillow that he kept on his bed.

Until he shared the bed with Junmyeon, he didn’t wake up hugging his pillow, but he’d noticed the few mornings that Junmyeon was still in bed with him, that he’d practically clung to the red head’s body. Almost like a koala bear hugging a tree branch.

Suhø didn’t seem bothered by it either, just smiling over at him. There were the few times that Suhø placed a teasing kiss to Kris’s forehead, but the demon loved teasing Kris. He thought nothing of it. _At first_.

As he lied there in his single bed, back in his dorm room, he thought about the last week that he spent back home, with his mother, and with Junmyeon… or _with Suhø_. At the beginning of the trip, and even before, when his mother told him about her moving in with his aunt, he was looking forward to seeing his mother again, but at the same time, dreading the presence of his uncle being there.

And it was already proven that if Suhø hadn’t been there with him, his uncle would’ve _attacked_ him again.

But the demon had been. He’d taken care of Kris the whole time. Protected him.

The sudden wonder of Suhø loving him had crossed Kris’s mind, but he didn’t let it play too much. Suhø was a demon, he’d stated before that he wasn’t bound by human emotions. And love… that was a human emotion, wasn’t it? He’d also said that he hadn’t fell in love with anyone either, _again_ , he wasn’t bound by human emotions. Nor would he want to be.

He didn’t know why that made his chest ache, but it did.

Shaking the thought from his head, he let go of his pillow and turned over to lie on his back. The sunlight was coming through the curtains, almost like the day’s way of trying to get him up and about, but until class started tomorrow morning, he was free the rest of the day. With the jet lag, he figured he was allowed a lazy day.

He yawned, stretching his arms out over himself. Sighing, he let his arms fall back by his side. He didn’t hear any movement throughout the front room, but as he’s come to realize, Junmyeon doesn’t exactly do anything unless acknowledged or unless Suhø was inhabiting him.

Now that spring break was over, and the mention from Suhø about his uncle being in a wheelchair by the time summer break came, he wondered how long the demon was going to stick around now. He’d said that he didn’t want Kris to be alone for the events that were going to happen. Was that just about what almost happened in the bathroom at his aunt’s?

Suhø hadn’t mentioned anything when they talked early that morning. He didn’t say anything about leaving Kris anytime soon, the most they talked about was Junmyeon’s fashion, and Suhø talked a good bit about Kris’s mother. But no matter how much Kris wanted to know the whole truth about her ‘sickness’, Suhø wouldn’t tell him.

The demon chalked everything up to Kris’s mother wanting him to focus on his studies for now, she’ll tell him about what’s going on when she’s ready. It made Kris worry, and he wanted to call or text his mother to ask her about it, but he refrained. She wouldn’t tell him until she was ready to.

Would the demon be able to help his mother, if she was seriously sick?

Kris already said that he wasn’t going to give his soul to Suhø, but if it was a matter of life and death for his mother… it was already a definite ‘yes’ to selling his soul to the demon to save his mother’s life. He would just have to find a virgin, or offer himself, if Suhø would take him.

He shook the thought away, he didn’t want to think about the possibility of losing his mother, he’d be in a world of hurt if he did lose her. The only person that’s been there for him.

The thought of Suhø leaving him too, he didn’t want to dwell on that either.

He supposed if the demon did leave him, he’d just have to go back to his same old boring life that he had before. He’d be alone again. No Suhø, no Junmyeon. No flashy red-clad demon and no dorky dressed dweeb following him around. He supposed he could try to make friends with other people… the thought alone had him shying away from it.

It wasn’t like he could befriend his guardian angel. As Suhø said, the angel won’t show his face.

“You certainly are deep in thought,” Suhø’s deep voice startled Kris, drawing his gaze from staring at the ceiling to the red haired demon sitting in his desk chair, legs crossed and propped up on Kris’s desk. He was without his red blazer, back in that black leather vest, making his pale skin stand out even more.

Kris managed a shrug, heaving himself up in bed, and sitting back against his headboard, “It’s nothing. Just tired from the trip.”

“That jet lag is no joke,” Suhø agreed, “I’ve still got Junmyeon resting.”

Kris’s eyebrow cocked up at that, “He gets tired too? Even though he’s dead?”

Suhø chuckled, “ _I_ got tired.” He sighed, working his shoulders, “Being in that human body, you are so limiting.”

“Did your brother realize that after he became human?”

“After the first few incarnations, when he returned to the soul realm after the deaths,” Suhø nodded. “But then he talked about his soul mate, and on the occasion, they even met up in the soul realm just before being reincarnated, and he wanted to go back. Be reborn again.”

Kris nodded slowly, a question popping up for him, “Will I be reborn too? Or is it just certain souls that get to be reborn?”

The smile that crossed Suhø’s face made Kris even more curious, “You will, as you have _many_ , many times throughout the centuries. And yes, only certain souls get to be reborn. Many souls that go to any of the nine realms of Hell don’t get to be reborn unless they can achieve complete forgiveness and after withstanding many trials of the realm they’re placed in. Your uncle, and the soul that dared to hurt my brother, are two of the main souls I will not allow to be reborn.

“I know you won’t ever forgive him,” Kris was already shaking his head at that, Suhø continued, “but if you ever did in this lifetime, he still wouldn’t be redeemed. Not the way that Tyler was, after he sought out for your forgiveness. I cursed his soul, it’s mine now.”

“You can do that? Just curse souls?”

Suhø chuckled, shaking his head, “Your uncle’s soul is one of the few exceptions. You know what I specialize in, and your uncle fits the category of souls I deal with. I have this lifetime of yours to hold against him, as well as your cousins’.” Kris’s eyes widened at that, leading to a saddened smile crossing Suhø’s lips, “You weren’t his only victim, Yifan.”

“They… but… just one or two of them? Or… all of them?” He’d only met his uncle’s other nephews and his only niece a handful of times, usually when his mother joined his aunt at some of their family gatherings on his uncle’s side of the family.

“All of them. Both of his brother’s sons, and his sister’s daughter, she was sodomized, at seven years old,” Suhø grimaced, shaking his head, “He was a predator. One that I wished I had caught sooner, could’ve saved you some grief as well as your cousins.”

Kris sat in shock for a moment after learning about that, he knew his uncle had to be a sick man to touch him, but to also hurt his cousins. He shuddered, breath shaky, he wished Suhø had taken care of his uncle sooner, “I… I prayed… I prayed every time I was left with him that he wouldn’t touch me…”

Suhø nodded, expression turned sad, “I know you did, I saw it in your soul’s record… as pathetic as it sounds, it wasn’t in my name… I didn’t hear it, and I am so sorry about that.” He glared at a spot in Kris’s room, and Kris already knew who it was aimed at, “Which is why you can understand my anger towards this useless asshole.”

It took a moment for Kris to gather his thoughts after that, sparing a small glance at the area that Suhø had glared at then turning his attention back to Suhø, “S-So if I pray to you now… you’ll answer me?”

Chuckling softly, Suhø winked, “You don’t even have to pray to me anymore, darling, I’m already here for anything you need.”

And despite how often Suhø had called him ‘darling’ before, this time, it hit differently for Kris. He would deny his cheeks turning a slight red at the term. He decided to take a different route with his questions though. He didn’t want to think of his uncle hurting his cousins like that, not without it resurfacing some memories of his own that he was doing a lot better at refraining from doing.

“You said I had many lifetimes before, or that I had been reborn multiple times before?” Suhø nodded. “Did I have someone like your brother did? A soul mate? I know you told me before that I wouldn’t get to meet my soul mate _this_ lifetime… but did I at least get to meet them before? Or will I get to meet them in the future, if I’m reborn again?”

A red tipped hand came to rest his hand over his chest, Suhø hummed, “You do, you have a soul mate, just like my brother, your soul sought out that other soul to spend lifetimes with. Some lifetimes, you didn’t, but majority of them, you did find them.”

Kris stared at the demon’s hand where it rested on Suhø’s chest, the same place where Suhø pulled his brother’s soul from his chest. It made him curious but at the same time, the sudden question popped up in his head. What if Kris’s soul mate was Suhø’s brother? But then he shook the thought away, he wasn’t that special of an individual.

Suhø’s twin brother was one of the top beings in Heaven, Suhø said that he managed all eight realms of Heaven, so he had to be of high importance. Surely someone like that wouldn’t be his soul mate.

He brushed off the thoughts, “Will I get to meet them in my next lifetime?”

Suhø chuckled softly, “I’m not a seer, Yifan, I can’t see into your future lifetimes, but if I have any input, I’ll try to help you out there.” At Kris’s small smile, Suhø shrugged, “I just hope you won’t mind Junmyeon sticking around for this lifetime.”

“Mama will love that,” Kris laughed, shaking his head, “She already gave me her blessing if we came back as a couple for summer break.”

Suhø moved his feet down from Kris’s desk and sat up, grinning, “She really did love Junmyeon."

“Hard not to when you were practically the son she longed for,” Kris gaped. “Did Junmyeon really enjoy cooking that much when he was living?”

“He did, but after high school and in college, he was much like yourself, hardly had time to cook. Relied on instant meals or small snacks to get him through,” Suhø shuddered, grimacing, “I can’t see what you humans get out of instant food, I don’t rely on food, but I have tried some of the little snacks, and they were gross.”

“But they do fill an empty spot, and quick to make.”

Suhø shuddered again, “But still gross.” He hummed, “Do you think you could’ve fell in love with Junmyeon? Aside from his fashion sense?”

Kris’s eyes widened at the question. After the whole trip back home with the red head by his side, honestly, he couldn’t imagine someone else by his side that whole time. While he was glad that it was really Suhø by his side when confronted with his uncle again, the other times when it was just him, Junmyeon, and his mother, it did feel nice.

“Well, he is handsome, aside from the dorky clothes… but they’re kind of growing on me. I don’t think it would be Junmyeon if it weren’t for the clothes,” Kris looked over Suhø’s red slacks and black leather vest, despite them looking so much alike, could he really picture Junmyeon in something like that? As much as Suhø’s clothes screamed sexy, Junmyeon’s clothes, as dorky as they were, were cute. “I know you told me about you and Junmyeon’s soul’s story, but I meant to ask… why do you two look so similar?”

Suhø chuckled, “It’s a shallow reason. A face like mine, why wouldn’t you want to be reincarnated with it?” Kris nodded at that, gaze running over Suhø’s facial features again, completely understandable. “So you think you could’ve fell in love with Junmyeon, yes?”

Kris started to nod again, but paused, “You’re really insistent about that question.” Suhø shrugged, but the expression on his face looked like more than just curiosity, there was something else there. Something Kris couldn’t decipher. “You mentioned before that me and Junmyeon would’ve gotten along fine if we’d ever met. Was…” Kris started his question, but he doubted the possibility, “You told me that I wouldn’t meet my soul mate in this lifetime, and that neither would Junmyeon, is that because he’s dead?”

The look on Suhø’s face answered that question. And it had Kris quickly shaking his head, a humorless laugh leaving his lips. Because it was ridiculous. He’d already ran that through his head.

There wasn’t any possibility that Junmyeon’s soul, Suhø’s twin brother’s soul, was his soul mate. There wasn’t anything _that_ special about Kris. The life he’d lead so far… dull and boring and hurt and alone… so alone….

He gulped hard, still shaking his head in denial, “You’re not serious.” When Suhø didn’t laugh or say that he was kidding, Kris shook his head again, “That’s not funny, Suhø.”

Suhø stood up and crossed the distance between the chair and the bed, his hand reaching out to Kris. The boy stared at the red finger-tipped hand, his gaze trailed up to Suhø’s face, seeing the way that he stared at him, those bright blue eyes looked dim in that moment. Kris’s gaze fell back to the hand, slipping his hand in his and Suhø pulled, until Kris moved closer to him. In the current position, Suhø towered over Kris.

“I wouldn’t joke about this, Yifan,” Suhø brought their hands up to the center of his chest, and placed Kris’s palm flat against his chest. Suhø’s skin was warm, but the spot slowly felt less solid, like a watery surface. His other hand came to cup Kris’s face, bringing his gaze back to his, “You wondered why I wanted to stick around you? Why I felt drawn to you ever since you were in my pentagram that first night?”

It had been a question that Kris wondered about, and then this morning, he’d pondered over how long Suhø would stay by his side. But right now, he hated the way that his mind was drawing up theories.

“I had just consumed my brother’s soul that week before, and you also know that I had been keeping a check on my brother’s soul throughout his incarnations through the ages after that first horrific event,” Suhø spoke softly, his thumb caressing Kris’s cheek, “And in my pentagram, I saw your soul, and of course, by seeing your soul, I could all the lifetimes you’d shared with my brother. _He_ saw you too, and _gods_ , he wanted to be with you.” The tear caught on the red tipped thumb, Kris’s attention was pulled away from his by the sudden glowing surrounding his hand on Suhø’s chest. The same glow that Suhø had pulled from his chest before, the liquid-like surface of his chest felt even warmer.

“B-But I… I’m nothing special-” it came out watery, eyes closing tightly, the same spot in his chest _ached_.

Suhø cut him off, “The life you have now, seems like nothing special, your guardian angel already sees you as just a normal human boy, but your soul is so much more than that. _I_ see you as so much more.”

Kris opened his eyes again, sniffling softly, “But why? I thought you were only sticking around with me because of what my uncle did to me… I worried this morning about when you were going to leave me since you’d already dealt with him.”

“At first that was the reason, and at first, I wanted the chance to make the man suffer for hurting you, but after being around you so much, Yifan, and maybe it is a bit of my brother influencing me, I’m not going anywhere.” Suhø chuckled softly, the glow fading from around Kris’s hand as the demon moved to lean down, lips pressing against Kris’s forehead, “I promised you that you wouldn’t be alone in this lifetime, and I meant it. Whether it’s as myself or in Junmyeon’s body, you’ll have me by your side always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You have no idea how much I wanted these two to kiss already, full lips locking action. Ugh!


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Suhø never wanted to become human, never saw the fascination in it, never saw the joy in it that his brother did. He couldn’t find it anywhere in himself to want to confine himself in a fleshy prison, subject to diseases, subject to injuries, and different handicaps. The different feats that he witnessed humans going through, the battles of the physical and mental, and then throw in nature on top of it.

“I don’t see what you find so fascinating about them,” he commented, watching from afar as he and his brother sat upon one of the clouds. They weren’t visible to any of the humans below, despite how much his red suit stood out to any other supernatural being.

His twin chuckled softly, splayed out on his front side on the cloud, his feet in the air and his head propped up by his hands, “They’re interesting. Something so fragile, yet so powerful too. They’ve accomplished so many things since their creation.”

Suhø’s eyebrow rose, glancing down at the middle-aged male mugging an elderly lady, then to the couple not far from the scene, trying to hush a crying baby, “If you say so.”

“That couple over there, the man has been carrying around a golden band for a week now, waiting for the right time to ask the woman to spend the rest of her life with him,” his brother pointed towards the young man that was watching his female companion window-shop. He’d waved his hand at the two scenes that his brother saw, the baby quietening down, and the mugger being chased away by an older gentleman.

“What’s so great about a marriage proposal? Isn’t that how people proclaim their love?”

“It is,” Suho replied, a wide smile on his face as he watched the man stare at his lover. “You’ve never wondered what it would be like to fall in love?” He looked up at his brother and pointed towards the man, “Don’t you wonder what it’s like to have someone gaze at you like that? Like you’re the only person in the universe?”

Suhø scoffed, looking over his red nails in sudden interest, “And what? Two years after, you’d have to deal with screaming babies and more children on the way.”

“You’re such a downer, you’ve never thought about what you’re missing out? Having no one special by your side?”

“I have you,” Suhø shrugged, “That’s more than enough for me, besides, you’re a handful as it is.”

Suho chuckled, “You’ve been saying that since the moment you were born, and I happened to be only one whole minute after you, _elder_.” Suhø shrugged again. “But I just… I always wonder what it would be like to find someone like that. To spend a lifetime with.”

“It can’t be that great… you spend the lifetime together with them and then after a short lifetime span, you have to say goodbye to them. That has to be painful,” he nodded down at the couple that Suho kept referring to, “She’s going to be a wreck when she has to bid him goodbye. Taking care of six children, all on her own, bills piling up.”

Suho nibbled his bottom lip at that, “True, but this moment right here, and then tonight when he pops the question to her. Those are moments that make humanity worth it.” He exhaled dreamily, “What if I could find someone like that?”

“Is that the only reason why you want to be a human? To fall in love?”

“Well… it plays a big part,” Suho hummed. “If I became human, do you think I’d find someone to fall in love with me like that?”

Suhø ruffled the other red head’s hair, “I don’t see why not. Who wouldn’t fall in love with you?” He thought it was just a joke, but seeing the serious look in his brother’s eyes, it had him pausing, “You’re not really thinking of _becoming_ human, are you?”

“It couldn’t be that bad, right?”

“You’d really be willing to deal with all that,” Suhø motioned towards the earthly scenery below, “just for a chance to fall in love?”

“I would.”

Suhø had saw the look in Kris’s eyes before, the early hours of the morning after they returned to the dorms. He’d also saw the look when Suhø finally confessed to the reason of why he was sticking close to Kris’s side for now. It wasn’t solely due to the exacting vengeance against his uncle, it was because his brother screamed to be by the human boy’s side.

The moment that Suhø laid eyes on the black haired boy in the pentagram, the soul in his chest cried out.

Throughout the ages that he had came across the deals with the human incarnations that his brother made with him, Suho’s soul was the only one that lingered inside Suhø’s being. He could call his twin forward, and release him when he felt it was safe to do so, or when his brother wanted to move on.

In the lifetimes that his brother and Kris’s soul spent together, if Suho had sold his soul to Suhø, then he usually kept it until the human form that Kris’s soul took on, drew its last breath. Mostly so they would have the chance to meet one another in the realm of the souls, and so that they would have the chance to be reborn together.

While, at first, it had made Kris scared to know that if he had been a virgin in his pentagram, then yes, Suhø would’ve eaten his soul, but at the same time, he would’ve merely been consuming and releasing the two souls back into the realm of souls. His brother and Kris’s soul would’ve been together.

Looking at Kris’s soul now, he could see that there was an interest in Suhø’s twin brother, but the love that he saw in the boy’s eyes, it was only aimed at himself. In this lifetime, Kris had fallen in love with Suhø, and not his twin brother. And he could see that the boy was only falling in love with him deeper and deeper every day.

It had been two weeks since they’d returned home from the visit with his mother. Two weeks of the same routine for the two, days of exhaustion from classes and studying until early hours into the morning. Suhø had the unfair advantage of just magically snapping his homework done, and then listening to the pencil scribbling across paper from Kris, along with the occasional typing on the laptop, and then in between small breaks, he’d hear Kris’s mother on the video-chat.

Junmyeon almost always made a special guest appearance during the video-chats, something that made Kris’s mother delighted for. And then on occasion, after getting off the video-chat with his mother, and dragging one of his study books over to the bed, Suhø often found himself with a armful of Kris snoozing away on his shoulder. The study book splayed wide, pencil still in hand, and notebook half falling off the bed.

Exams were coming up and Kris was studying more and more than he had when Suhø first appeared.

Tonight was no exception. It was a bit more quiet on campus the last few days, all the students had traded in their partying for more studying and panicking over passing their exams. For a Friday night, Suhø never thought he’d see a campus so vacant of party activity.

Kris had started studying hours ago and now, the night had faded into the early hours of the morning, Suhø was cuddling a snoring Kris. With a snap of his finger, the opened book closed and move to the desk, the pen that Kris had was placed neatly beside it, and the boy’s clothes slowly turned into his pajamas. The movements had caused Kris to stir slightly, shifting where his head lied against Suhø’s shoulder, lips smacking and tapering off into snoring again.

Suhø slowly brought the blanket up, and settled them down onto the bed.

After getting the boy tucked in, he finally noticed that Kris’s hand had found its place on his chest where his vest fell open. He could feel his brother’s soul wanting to touch that hand again, like he had before, and he allowed it to surface. The area around Kris’s hand started emitting a soft glow, the area of the skin rippled, almost like water.

“I know, he’s so close to you right now, isn’t he?” Suhø murmured, drawing up the soul from his chest and cradling it in his hand, still close to Kris’s sleeping form. “I never understood your fascination with love, but this boy…” he chuckled, shaking his head, “I just want to protect him. Much like how you did in your first incarnation, upon meeting his first incarnation.”

The glowing orb flickered, almost like a response to him.

His brother’s first incarnation, the first few years of his life weren’t the best, but after Suhø had found out about the damage done to his brother, he’d made it a point to protect him for the rest of his days. In a way, he was the one that allowed the introduction of Kris’s soul, his first incarnation, to meet his twin. Having looked over the contents and finding that Kris’s soul was a newborn at the time, he could see the life they would have in that lifetime, and practically pushed the two together.

The first incarnation of Kris’s soul, he was a teenaged girl, one that came from a noble family, when she had came across Suhø’s brother. He was much like Kris now, suffering from the cruelty bestowed upon him by a close relative, feeling alone, ashamed, and hurt. And she pieced him back together, helped him heal, helped him become a great man later on in life, and gave him her love and devotion.

But unlike that lifetime, _this_ lifetime, Kris wouldn’t have had anyone to help piece him back together. Kim Junmyeon and Wu Yifan were born in two entirely different countries, studying thousands of miles apart, and would never have met. Even if Suhø hadn’t intervened, even if Junmyeon hadn’t sold his soul to Suhø, the two weren’t destined to be together _this_ lifetime.

The cards that Kris’s guardian angel had dealt him were cards of nothing but sadness and heartache. First, suffering as a child, then struggling to fit in with the outside world, alone and lonely, suffering at the hands of his abuser again, and then with the coming weeks, dealing with the loss of his mother. After that, Kris would’ve truly been alone.

_So lonely._

It made Suhø’s heart ache at the thought.

While under the circumstances of being used as a sacrificial offering, Suhø was a bit glad to be summoned by the spell-caster. If he hadn’t been, then he would’ve never known Kris. Other than knowing that he was his brother’s soul mate, that was all. He wouldn’t have been in a position to voluntarily stick around with the boy. Suho was his main concern, his brother would always be his top priority.

But now, with his brother’s soul tucked safely away inside himself, Kris was his only focus.

“Would you be upset with me if I loved him… just for this lifetime?” He asked, gazing at the orb before looking down at Kris’s sleeping face. His mouth was open now, drool slowly puddling on his shoulder.

“You’d be willing to incarnate into a human for Yifan?” The sudden voice joining the room had Suhø turning a glare over at the white cloaked being. His brother’s soul flickered brightly in his hand, almost as if it wanted to move closer to Kris.

Suhø scoffed, “Unlike my brother, I am not that fascinated by a fleshy prison. So no, I won’t be incarnating for Yifan.”

Luhan’s head tilted slightly in confusion, “Then how? How are you going to love him? Your soul is already beginning to mix with Yifan’s.”

“For an angel, you’re awfully uneducated in your book of knowledge,” Suhø cocked an eyebrow upwards at the blonde being, and despite seeing the way that the comment made Luhan’s eye twitch, the angel didn’t dare raise a glare at the prince. “Junmyeon is still a full functioning human, a little bit of magic, and a little bit of my own self, and I can be as human as I need to be for Yifan.”

“You’ll be completely disrupting the timeline for him,” Luhan retorted, nodding at Kris’s sleeping form. “More than you already are.”

“ _Disrupting_ ,” Suhø repeated, the glare aimed at Luhan darkening, “Suppose I would be _disrupting_ your _written_ path of his suicide, yes-”

“Our Father already has this-”

“Your _Father_ is nothing more than a life source, birthing things into existence. Why do you think humans have freewill? Why do you think I have freewill?” Suhø scowled, “The one being that _managed_ all the realms of Heaven and _managed_ the course that all humans took in their paths is right here,” he motioned towards the orb of light in his palm, “Your Father’s Heavenly Prince right here.” He waved off Luhan, “Like I told you before, you have your written path of his life, and I have my own, and you underestimate me, Luhan, if you think I’m going to allow you to keep him on your path.”

Luhan was quiet for a moment, staring at the soul in Suhø’s hand, he bowed his head, “The path we’re given for each human is supposed to help them grow-”

“He couldn’t do much _growing_ if all he’s faced with is suffering and suffering some more, and then in the end? A year after his mother dies? He hangs himself. How is that considered _growth_?” Suhø snarled, and Luhan lowered his head further to avoid that heated stare.

“I know it’s not perfect, but… my Prince, it’s what I was given to oversee.”

Suhø waved him off again, “Get lost, Luhan, the next time you show your face to me, **_**I’m kicking your ass**_**.”

The growled words made Luhan quickly disperse, Suho’s soul absorbing back into the demon’s chest, and had stirred Kris awake. He looked around through squinted eyes, confused by the voices. But Suhø merely pulled him back down to rest his head against his shoulder again.

“Rest, darling,” Suhø cooed, hand running through Kris’s hair, pressing a kiss to the boy’s forehead.

Kris yawned, eyes closing again as he snuggled into Suhø, “I heard voices… yours and someone else.”

Suhø hummed, “Just a little spat with your guardian angel, just like always.”

“You really don’t like him,” Kris noted, eyes still closed, enjoying the fingers in his hair, if his curiosity hadn’t been peeked, they would’ve lulled him back to sleep. “I know… I know you said that Heaven and Hell aren’t good and evil against each other, so why don’t you like my guardian angel?” He looked up at Suhø, mumbling, “Cause that just sounds like good verses evil…”

“In this instance, I’ll take it that I’m the good in your little scenario,” Suhø chuckled softly, earning a smile from Kris. “Guardian angels are an odd thing, well, it’s a odd term that humans came up with, but they’re more like guides. Even though I hate yours for what you’ve been through and what you’re supposed to go through, they do have a written plan for each individual that they’re assigned.

“Each person has their own guide, some people go off the path on their own, others follow their path through without any interference. It just depends on the individual and what they’re influenced by throughout their lives. A guardian angel is just a guide, they’re not exactly good or evil, they’re the ones that appear when you take your last breath, and then they’ll guide your soul on.”

“Mmm, can you guide my soul on when I die instead?” Kris asked, sleepily, eyes closing again as he nuzzled into Suhø’s neck. “I’ll take your word that my guardian angel sucks… I’d rather have you.”

Suhø knew it was just a sleepy and exhausted mind causing Kris to say those things, but it made something in Suhø stir. It wasn’t his brother’s soul either.

“I’ll guide your soul on home, Yifan,” Suhø agreed to it, but he would make sure that the event of Kris’s death wouldn’t be for a long time. “I’ll stay right beside my darling.”

Kris smiled against Suhø’s neck, “I love when you call me darling.”

Suhø grinned down at the sleepy face of Kris, , “Yeah? _Darling_.”

Kris laughed softly, eyes opening and widening when he saw the way that Suhø was looking down at him. Suddenly his response was lost to him, those bright blue eyes looked different. Softer, gentler, and they made Kris feel small. Then his eyes flickered between that blue gaze and those red lips.

The demon noticed the way that Kris’s eyes lowered, and he finally decided to take the step that Kris had been so hesitant to take the small moments before. His hand came up to cup the side of Kris’s face, thumb caressing the boy’s cheek.

Kris thought that Suhø was about to kiss his forehead again, so he closed his eyes, waiting to feel those soft lips against his temple. But Suhø leaned down and pressed his lips against Kris’s in a gentle and short kiss.

Despite his mind being half-sleep moments ago, Kris was awake now. 

When Suhø pulled back, he smirked at the way that Kris’s mind was completely clear now. The boy’s hand coming up to touch his lips, and Suhø knew why. That was his first kiss. Of all the things that his uncle stole from Kris, he hadn’t stolen the boy’s kiss

“I love you, _darling_.” Kris’s eyes widened at the statement, but Suhø simply continued on, the smirk on his face softening, “I just thought you should know that.”

The demon saw it coming the moment he said that, the look in Kris’s eyes, the hand cupping up to Suhø’s face slowly, a small shy smile crossing Kris’s lips when he brought their lips back together in another soft kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY
> 
> I would've gotten this out earlier but I've been so emotional over Junmyeon's enlistment, but two years will fly by! T_T


	14. Chapter Fourteen

“If it gets to be too much for you, just let me know, okay?” Suhø cautioned, looking over Kris’s face to see the boy was nervous. But it was understandable. This was the first to come.

Kris nodded, but his nerves didn’t ease. He took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind, but it didn’t help. He racked his brain all that morning and now the time had come. The first exam for this semester was beginning in ten minutes. Junmyeon had followed him into the classroom and everyone in the classroom looked nervous. Some of them almost as nervous as Kris, but others weren’t as nervous.

The Chinese boy was seated at his desk, Junmyeon by his side, and they were waiting for the instructor to come in and hand out the exam packets. The last week, Kris had continued to study hard. The only thing that had changed was that Kris didn’t go to bed alone anymore, Suhø was right there. And the little kisses that they shared suddenly became a regular thing.

The morning after the first two kisses, Kris was a bit shy towards Suhø, but everything fell back into its usual place when the demon handed him a plate of breakfast and started talking about his exams coming up. It was just like every other morning, with the exception of the few times that Kris ducked his head when getting caught staring at Suhø’s lips.

“Good morning, class, I assume everyone has studied up and prepared for the big day today,” the instructor spoke once he’d gotten into class. In his hands was the exam packets.

Junmyeon reached over and patted Kris’s balled up fist on his desk, it was still tense with nerves. From the small pat though, Suhø soothed some of that tenseness, but he could still see that Kris was dreading the exam.

Thirty minutes later, Junmyeon’s packet was completed with the wave of his hand shortly after it was given out, while Kris was stuck on the fifth page of his. He tapped his pencil above the question as he read over it and then reread over it. Mind coming up a blank when he tried to fill in the answer line.

Kris rubbed at his temple, trying to remember what the answer was to write it out when the words suddenly started appearing. Each letter writing itself out in his handwriting, until the whole sentence had been formed. Kris’s eyes widened, he glanced over at Junmyeon to find him acting like he was deep in thought about a certain page in the packet.

While he didn’t want to cheat, or use _otherworldly_ sources to help him on his exam, he debated about erasing the answer but sparing one glance at the clock at the front of the room, and the time left to complete the exam, he decided to move onto the next question. Answering it with ease. He had five more pages to go and only twenty-five minutes left to complete it.

He knew it was Suhø’s doing each time he was stuck on one of the questions for longer than a minute, the answer would appear. And while he wanted to tell the demon to stop, he didn’t want to cheat on his exams, at the same time, he was grateful for it. His mind was still reeling for answers to the questions and coming up with blanks on some and soaring through the others. It wasn’t quiet enough in the classroom to hear the clock’s ticking but any time he glanced up at the clock on the wall, the hands seemed to be almost mocking him. Time was running out.

“Pencils down,” his instructor stated, startling Kris but he was on the very last question. Left unanswered. “Flip your packets over, and you’re dismissed.”

Kris followed the orders and then stood up on shaky legs, the stress and anxiety of the test felt like it had drained his energy all of a sudden. He glanced over to see Junmyeon looking up at him in concern, but he shook it off. Once he got outside the classroom, he felt like he could breathe a little easier, but he was still worried about the results of his exam.

“You know you passed, right?” Junmyeon stated quietly, watching side by side with Kris to the next class.

Kris glanced over at him, seeing the way that Junmyeon’s eyes flashed bright blue for a split second, he figured that Suhø must’ve had something to do with him passing, “You answered that last question when time ran out, didn’t you?”

“Mhm, I did,” Junmyeon smiled, a bit more smug than what the red haired boy would’ve usually done.

Even though Kris knew it was Suhø inhabiting the body, and influencing most of the actions that the red head did, there were some things that seemed a bit out of character for how Kris would’ve assumed Junmyeon was like. It also conflicted with the tacky beige and blue sweater vest that he was currently wearing.

Instead of protesting against those actions and against the actual _cheating_ on the exam, Kris simply breathed a small sigh of relief, “Thank you.” He glanced over at the red haired boy, “I bet you passed with flying colors.”

Junmyeon threw him a teasing smile, “Just because the answers magically appeared doesn’t mean they were the right answers.” He shrugged, voice lowering into a whisper, “I can’t have Junmyeon getting too much recognition after all, it would raise too many concerns.”

Kris nodded, that made sense. It would be a bit hard to explain that a dead boy had top scores on the exams. But also had him pausing, “Wait, what about the questions you answered on mine?”

Junmyeon winked, and was about to tease him but thought otherwise, given the nervous wreck the boy was in all this morning due to the exam, “They were the right answers, you basically did the whole test yourself, I just helped out.” His hand slipped into Kris’s, “Come on, Business Law awaits us now, you can breathe a little easier now.”

Kris allowed himself to be lead on by the red head, his stomach still doing flips now anytime that Suhø held his hand. His chest felt like it was going to burst every time the demon kissed him. It was new, exciting, a bit nerve-wrecking, but he was enjoying it.

“I told you that you’d passed,” Suhø stated, arms behind his head from where he lied back on Kris’s bed. He saw the way that Kris was skimming over the page on the college website and found the grade scores that his instructor posted, he also saw when Kris sagged back in his seat, a deep exhale falling from his lips, relieved when he saw the scores.

“You did,” Kris sighed, closing the webpage and shutting down his laptop. “Now in four days, I’ll have the Records Management exam to worry about.” He glanced at the clock, seeing it nearing close to midnight, he was tired from today’s classes and from the added stress of worrying about his exams.

Suhø moved one of his arms and extended his hand to Kris, a way of saying, ‘come to bed.’ The offer did not go unaccepted either. Kris moved over to the bed and lied down, Suhø’s arm curling around him as the taller boy curled up to him. It was mostly how the night usually started out. Kris was on his side, curled up to Suhø, head resting on his shoulder, until throughout the night, the boy moved in his sleep to another position.

It was quiet between the two for a moment, Suhø could tell by the boy’s breathing that he hadn’t fallen off to sleep yet, but he was calmer now than he had been. The worries and exhaustion of the day were finally fading, allowing the boy to relax and his body to release the tension. Suhø’s hand in his hair might’ve also helped with that, as it gently ran through it.

“Does… does _this_ change anything between us?” Kris asked, breaking the silence and causing Suhø’s hand to pause when the boy looked up at him. He motioned towards themselves where they were cuddled up on the bed.

Suhø shrugged with the shoulder that wasn’t occupying Kris’s head, “Do you want it to? Just because I said I love you doesn’t mean you have to feel obligated to return that.” Even though he already knew that Kris did, he just hadn’t said, but given the boy’s lack of experience, he could understand why and he could understand the hesitance.

Kris hummed, laughing softly, “Honestly, I hadn’t given much thought to it… the exam and the ones coming up have been pretty much all I’ve been thinking about.” He looked down, feeling shy all of a sudden, mumbling, “But I do like… the… uh… I like the kisses.”

Suhø chuckled, “I like giving them.” He moved his other hand and his fingers reached under Kris’s chin to bring his gaze back to his, “I admit I was a little worried about kissing you at first, and then the little confession, I don’t want you to feel like I’m pushing you into anything.”

Kris shook his head, “You’re not. I’m just… I don’t have much-”

“Experience, I know, and I don’t either,” Suhø shrugged, “I know I’ve been around since the beginning of time, but like I told you before, I never had much use for human emotions. Love being one of them.”

Kris nodded, remembering the small conversation on the plane back home, “I remember. You said you didn’t have a soul mate either… and then the other night… you said that Suho was my soul mate. Is _this_ okay with him too?”

Suhø’s hand moved down to his chest, where the vest fell open, and drew forth the glowing white orb, “He doesn’t mind.” Cradling the orb in his palm, he stared at the soul, Kris was staring at it too, “Since Junmyeon is dead in this lifetime, and Suho has been consumed by myself-”

“I wouldn’t get to meet him,” Kris finished, remembering what Suhø told him before about in this lifetime, he wouldn’t get to meet his soul mate. “If he hadn’t sold his soul to you… would I have gotten to meet him then?”

Suhø shook his head, the orb in his hand flickering, “No, even if he hadn’t, you wouldn’t. If he hadn’t been hit by a car, Junmyeon would’ve grown old, alone, and too busy for anything other than working at his father’s company.”

Kris glanced up at him then back at the soul of Suhø’s brother’s, “He would’ve been alone…” He laughed but it was humorless, “Somehow I feel like I would end up alone too.”

“That’s why I’m going to stay by your side, Yifan,” Suhø murmured, leaving out the outline that Kris’s guardian angel had for him. Suhø wouldn’t allow that path to be walked down. “You know… I stayed by my brother’s side since our births into existence. When he wanted to become human, I was alone, much like yourself. And I’ve been alone, the small instances where I watched over Suho as he lived out his lives throughout his human lifetimes, I felt close to him again, but at the same time, he couldn’t see me, and I couldn’t appear to him.

“The first time he summoned me, I was elated. But as much as I wanted to wrap my arms around him and just hold him, I was there to do a job. The first time I took his soul upon his death, I did consume it, but the difference between his soul and a normal human’s soul is that Suho is eternal, he settles right there, in my chest, until I want to release him. When he’s within me, I don’t feel as alone.”

The milky white orb glowed brighter for a moment, flickering again. Kris’s hand hesitated, reaching out to the orb but stopped, “Can I… can I touch it? Or… him?”

Suhø nodded, “Go ahead. His soul will feel like water.”

Kris reached out, his hand dipping into the white orb, and realized that Suhø was right. It was like water. Just like the moment when Suhø placed Kris’s hand on his chest before, just like water, _cool liquid_ , but his hand wasn’t wet. It kept flickering brighter and brighter as Kris stared at the way his hand seemed to disappear into the white.

It made something in his chest feel tight.

He pulled his hand away and the orb returned to a dimmer state. “If Suho’s soul is different from humans’, I still don’t understand how I’m his soul mate. I’m _just_ a human.”

“You are _just_ a human, but Suho, when incarnated, is _just_ a human too,” Suhø reminded him. “Your _first_ incarnation was in the same lifetime as his _first_ incarnation, you were a newborn soul in that lifetime. Maybe what deemed your soul so special to him, is that you were the one to comfort him.

“You remember what I told you about his first incarnation and what happened to him,” Kris nodded at that. Suhø had told him that his brother had been assaulted, much like he had. “ _You_ found him in a lonely place in that lifetime, and you helped him heal. He fell in love with you from that moment on.” He shrugged, “I’m guessing he loved you so much in that lifetime that in every incarnation afterwards, he sought you out. But like I told you, some lifetimes, he found you, and some, he didn’t.”

Kris wondered what was so special about himself in that lifetime to make a Prince fall in love with him and want to find him throughout the lifetimes. He didn’t think he was anything special, but Suhø had stated before that a human’s memory was wiped clean with every reincarnation. He saw the orb slowly sink back into Suhø’s chest, then that red-tipped hand rested where the soul entered his chest.

Suhø’s hand rested there for a moment, and Kris couldn’t stop himself, his hand came up to intertwine with the demon’s.

“You said you’re going to stay by my side… do you mean… for the rest of my life?” Kris’s thumb rubbed against Suhø’s thumb, his voice had dropped to the soft, shy tone he’d taken on when it came to a topic such as this.

“I do,” he nudged Kris to cause the boy to look up at him, “I won’t become human, no, but as long as I have Junmyeon’s body, I can inhabit it. He’ll grow old with you, and you’ll have me as your companion.” He pressed his lips to Kris’s forehead, “As long as you’re okay with that.”

Kris pulled back from Suhø, lips forming a pout, “You missed your location.”

Suhø laughed, shaking his head, “Suppose I did, please, let me try again?” He pressed his lips against Kris’s, it was soft at first, a little longer than usual. And when he started to pull back, Kris pressed for another kiss. One that Suhø was more than happy to return.

The demon untangled his hand from Kris’s to reach up to cup the boy’s face, their lips moving differently now, the kiss deepening. He followed along with Kris’s pace, trying to lead where the boy’s experience fell short, but also tried to match the boys pace.

Suhø had kissed before, he’d had a few occasional flings in the past, nothing serious, and it mostly revolved around one of the other Princes from the realms of Hell. He had experience in the physical actions of sex, just nothing emotional was ever tied to it. So he could lead Kris, but he also wanted to stay at the boy’s pace.

He knew anything more could end up triggering bad memories and the last thing that Suhø wanted to do was cause Kris hurt and pain. The last thing he wanted to do was be put in the same category as Kris’s uncle.

But Kris was still leading him, while being also guided by Suhø. The kisses were longer, deeper, and by the time they’d pulled away, Kris’s lips were reddened as they were left open to gulp down air.

“I’m okay with you being by my side, Suhø,” Kris breathed, his hand coming up to cover Suhø’s hand on his face, “I’m okay with it being Junmyeon to everyone else.”

“Even with his sweater vests?” Suhø chuckled softly, earning a laugh from Kris at the question.

“They’re growing on me,” Kris shook his head, “Just… don’t get any ideas when we’re like _this,_ ” He motioned towards the demon’s body.

Suhø scoffed, “Trust me, I won’t.” He pulled the boy back into a kiss, then trailed off into a smaller peck. “You should get some rest. Early classes in the morning.”


	15. Chapter Fifteen

The red tipped fingers that trailed down his chest left a trail of goosebumps popping up on his skin, catching a shiver from the taller boy as he sighed into the lips that were connected to his. The kisses had taken a different turn, they started out soft, they were soft and gentle when he woke up to being cuddled up in Suhø’s arms that morning. But at the lap of that tongue against his lips, it had his mouth opening, and his own tongue met Suhø’s, unsure of the actions at first, but the little coaxing that Suhø gave him, had him following the demon’s lead.

Just as Kris breathed a soft moan, Suhø pulled back, the blue gaze searching Kris’s eyes before trailing down to where his tank top was bunched up at his upper chest, the rest was exposed to the demon’s gaze. Kris felt small again under that gaze, he was crossed between bringing his arms up to cover himself and to let himself be gazed at by the demon.

Suhø’s eyes returned to Kris’s, “You’re okay? With this?” His gaze glanced down at the wet lips of Kris’s. “I’m not pressuring you.”

Kris shook his head, swallowing, “You’re not, I’m okay.”

Suhø pressed his lips back to Kris’s, keeping the kiss soft, even though Kris whined as he pulled back, “If you’re sure.” His voice dropped to a whisper, expression turning serious, “I don’t want to stir any old memories, so you’ll let me know if anything I do is ever too much, okay?”

Those words had Kris’s gaze softening, his mood sobering up slightly. He reached up to cup Suhø’s face, “I’ll let you know… thank you.” Then another question popped up, “Are we… are we going all the way _now_?”

Suhø moved Kris’s hand from the side of his face to kiss the palm of his hand, “If you want, while the last few days, your mind has been plagued with worry for your exams, you’ve also had some _interesting_ dreams.”

Kris’s face burned at that, had he talked in his sleep? The dreams he had the last few nights… surely, he didn’t _say_ anything during those... right?

“I… I didn’t say anything embarrassing, did I?”

Suhø kissed his palm again, a teasing smile tugging at his lips, “You didn’t, but I did wake up to your lips mouthing at my neck.”

The taller boy’s eyes widened and his face was beginning to resemble Suhø’s hair with how red it was getting, “Oh. Um… sorry?”

Suhø chuckled, “You’re fine, I didn’t mind it at all,” he winked, much to Kris’s embarrassment, “But if you want to take that next step, I’m ready, but if not, then I’ll wait. This is still very new to you, and I don’t want to do anything that’s uncomfortable for you, nor do I want to do anything that’s triggering.” His lips formed a small smile, eyes kind, “I don’t want to hurt my darling.”

“When we’re like this, _he’s_ the furthest thing from my mind,” Kris replied, bringing their lips back together. “Ever since that night, when you saved me from him, I haven’t thought that much about him anymore. He’s a bad memory, but then you pop up, and call me ‘darling’ and everything just feels… alright now.”

“Maybe it’s because I promised you that you’re safe now, and as long as I’m here, you are safe. Safe from the whole world. He won’t ever hurt you again,” Suhø brought their lips back together, the kiss deepening, and this time, neither one of them pulled back.

Tongues started rubbing against one another, lips molding, thoughts melting away, and touches became bolder. Suhø was still leading by only two steps ahead of Kris, but Kris was keeping up, the demon didn’t take anymore than what he’d tested as okay. His hand had returned to Kris’s chest, caressing the skin of his chest, leading to the outline of his ribs, and then catching a slight ticklish spot when he started towards the boy’s abdomen.

When Suhø swallowed up the small laugh of Kris’s, he pulled back, hands finding Kris’s shirt that had been bunched up to his shoulders. He quickly pulled it off, moving to straddle the boy’s thighs, the boxers were already displaying the small tent that was slowly forming. The black boxers were such a contrast to the blood red slacks of Suhø’s, a tent of his own forming.

After the shirt was discarded to the floor and the blankets had fallen away from them, left bunched up at the side of the bed, Suhø wasted no time in bringing their lips back together. Just when Kris tried to lick into the demon’s mouth, the red head pulled away with a teasing wink, moving lower to find the skin of Kris’s neck to press an open-mouthed kiss to. Tracing one of the veins with his tongue, Kris’s head turned slightly, baring his neck to Suhø.

The boy wasn’t sure if he wanted the demon to kiss his neck or sink his teeth into it, but his eyes fluttered shut as that mouth latched onto a certain spot, sending a shiver down his spine. His hands came up to grip Suhø’s hair, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to pull the demon to him or push him away. He didn’t know what he wanted, but the more that Suhø sucked at the spot, lapped at it, the more it made his stomach tighten up.

It felt like the first time he’d masturbated, just a little teenager, his body going through changes, and curiosity got the best of him. He felt dirty afterwards, and when the memory of his uncle touching him had surfaced, he didn’t care to touch himself like that again. Not until he was a bit older, and had developed a crush on one of the girls from his high school class. It was just the result of a wet dream, just a normal teenage boy’s reaction to a pretty girl of their interest.

But those times, he’d been alone, by himself, no one else around, and it felt embarrassing to even think of someone else witnessing him doing such a thing.

Now, he was practically on display for Suhø, to draw reactions from him, draw feelings from him, to draw anything he wanted from Kris. All with a few kisses, touches, and strokes that were building up to something entirely new.

He knew that Suhø had worried about his mindset when it came to these things, but Suhø wasn’t forcing himself onto Kris, he hadn’t pushed him down on the bed, and he hadn’t ripped his pants off, he hadn’t made Kris cry, he hadn’t made Kris do anything he didn’t want to do. He was nothing at all like Kris’s uncle.

“Still okay, darling?” And there it was, that ‘ _darling’_ nickname. Kris used to think nothing of that little nickname, but now it was something he loved the demon calling him. It was something special to him. “Yifan?”

Kris opened his eyes and turned back to realize that Suhø had stopped the work on his neck, propped over him, a tinge of worry in his eyes as he looked over Kris’s face. “I’m okay, Suhø.” He pulled the demon back to him for an open kiss, one that the demon returned, but Kris could feel his hesitance. “Touch me, I promise you, I’m okay,” he hoped the look in his eyes was believable to the demon, because he was, he was okay. Completely okay with him. He wanted this, he wanted Suhø, all of Suhø that he had to give. “I want you.”

Suhø looked conflicted between wanting to make a teasing remark to that and asking for confirmation again. Kris didn’t wait for the demon to do either though, simply pressing his lips back to the demon’s, and one of his hands reached down between them, coming to rest on the button of Suhø’s slacks. It barely brushed against the tented front.

“ _I want you_ ,” Kris repeated, letting Suhø pull back and searching the demon’s eyes, hoping that he was conveying the confidence he felt in that statement.

Those bright blue eyes darkened, tongue running across that red bottom lip, his hand came to rest on top of Kris’s that was on his slacks, “I want you too, Yifan.”

Under that gaze, Kris suddenly felt shy again, murmuring softly, “Then have me.”

Suhø’s lips returned to the area of Kris’s neck where he had sucked a few coloring spots onto, but his lips didn’t linger, they pressed butterfly kisses against the skin, from his neck to his collarbone, one on his shoulder, and then his tongue flicked at one Kris’s nipples. The action startling a shiver from the boy, even more when Suhø’s hand came up and his thumb rubbed at the other bud, causing it to erect. Blood rushed to fill out the tent further in those black boxers as Suhø’s mouth suckled softly at the nipple.

Kris arched into the feeling, a whimper caught in his throat as his teeth sunk into his bottom lip. This part was new, completely new, and foreign to him. He’d heard the small talk from Henry about the way that girls liked having their breasts touched and licked at like this, he wondered if it felt this good.

Suhø’s mouth kept Kris occupied with the torture done to his chest, he didn’t notice the hand that had crept down to his boxers until he felt cool air meet his hardened length. The fabric that was confining him was pushed down, settling around his lower thighs. That hand came back, tracing out the lines of his pelvic bones, leading down to where his cock had fully erected. The hand closing around him had Kris bucking up slightly, wanting to thrust into that hand.

He hadn’t noticed that the demon had left his chest area, and had started pressing butterfly kisses down to his stomach and then he pulled back. Having lowered himself further down the bed, coming to rest between Kris’s spread legs, he tugged at the throbbing length in his hand once, catching a whimper from the boy’s lips.

“Again, Yifan, if at any time you need me to stop, don’t hesitate to tell me,” Suhø reminded him one last time, causing Kris’s eyes to open and connect to the demon’s below him. Kris nodded, a plea for him to continue dying on his lips when the demon winked at him, and then the boy couldn’t stop the cry from his lips when Suhø took the tip of himself into his mouth.

Those hands came to rest on Kris’s hips, mostly to keep the boy from bucking up, as he sucked more of the boy’s length into his mouth. His tongue teased the slit of Kris’s cock, before running along the thick vein. He swallowed around the cock, taking more, then pulling back. One of his hands wrapped around the base of Kris’s length and moved in time with his head bobbing.

The whole experience was entirely new to Kris, and he couldn’t hold back the whimpers and the quiet moans that left his lips. He could feel his stomach tightening up for release, and while he felt embarrassed for being unable to last that long, he couldn’t stop the way his body was reacting. His hips wanted to buck into that wet, warm heat but Suhø’s hand on his hip kept them settled, but they still shook with need.

Just as he felt himself about to go over the edge, Suhø pulled back, earning a whine from the boy at the loss of the friction and heat around him. He looked up with hooded eyes, confused as to why the demon had stopped, but the sight of the demon with even redder lips that were glistening with spit, it had Kris’s mouth running dry.

“That was just to get you wet enough, darling,” Suhø stated, smirking when Kris’s eyes widened. With a snap of his fingers, the red slack were gone, leaving the demon completely naked. Kris shouldn’t have been surprised by just how much that pale skin stood out, but his eyes failed to drift anywhere else other than on the standing cock against Suhø’s lower stomach.

Kris started to move to widen his spread legs, but Suhø stopped him, moving back up to straddle his lap, settling just above Kris’s lower half. Kris was confused for a moment, he thought he was going to be the one… “B-But… I-”

Suhø reached out to pat the side of his blushing face softly, “One day I’ll show you just how pleasurable it is to be on the receiving end, but I personally prefer being the one _taking_ _it_.” That statement had Kris’s eyes widened, he opened his mouth to reply but Suhø continued, reaching behind himself to line Kris up with himself. He’d already made sure his body was ready, “Just needed to get _you_ ready.”

When the demon slowly sank down on Kris, the boy’s head fell back against the pillow, eyes closed and mouth opened in a silent cry when Suhø bottomed out. The tightness around Kris, he thought he was going to explode earlier with the demon’s mouth on him, but the grip around him now, there wasn’t any way he was going to last. Then Suhø started to move, slowly at first, almost as if he were testing the waters, making sure that Kris was okay with the actions.

The only protests that Kris would have was that he could feel himself closer and closer to the edge of climax when Suhø started to move faster, clenching up around Kris as he moved. And if Kris’s moans had been any louder, he would’ve missed the soft sighs and moans of the demon’s.

Kris managed to open his eyes and the sight of the demon’s head fallen back, exposing the pale neck with those veins on display, the mouth that had fallen open when he sank back down, it was almost too much for Kris.

The heat around him, the clenching that the demon kept repeating, the tightness in his stomach building and building, the edges of Kris’s vision slowly fading to white until Suhø’s soft moan caught his attention. The demon guiding his hand to the throbbing cock of Suhø’s, “Touch me, _please_ , Yifan, touch me, darling.”

Kris’s hand wrapped around Suhø, and tried to match the pace of the demon’s movements, his thumb rubbing the slit, and working up the climax.

Just as the demon’s hips started to falter in their movements, Suhø’s other hand found Kris’s chest, almost like he was bracing himself as he grind back down on Kris. The boy couldn’t hold back anymore, hips bucking as he finally let him go, seeing nothing but white. Suhø sank down on the throbbing cock in him, letting the boy paint his inner walls deep. Kris’s hand was guided by Suhø’s to work to get himself off, and Kris faintly registered the splattering of warm liquid on his chest.

The demon slowly moved up off of Kris, and collapsed to the side of the boy, chest rising and falling much like Kris’s with the quick intakes of breath. As he panted for breath, he moved to curl up to Kris, their bodies were sticky with sweat and the mess on Kris’s stomach. Suhø’s backside was already starting to leak from the boy’s release.

Kris’s arm had wrapped around Suhø, the demon’s fingers dipped through the drying mess on the boy’s stomach. When he got his mind and strength back, he’d clean everything back up. For now, he wanted to bask in this.

And when he looked up and met the boy’s gaze, a softy, dopey smile crossed Kris’s face, a matching one working its way across Suhø’s too, before they both exhaled a breathy laugh.

“That was…” Kris breathed, “that was amazing.”

Suhø grinned, lying his head back down on Kris’s shoulder, “I’m glad you enjoyed it. But it gets even better over time.”

Kris could imagine that it would, after they knew what quirks the other liked.

His hand found Suhø’s hair, much like how Suhø does for him, running his fingers through the sweaty red strands. Suhø’s hair wasn’t as long as Kris’s though, so instead, he started massaging the demon’s scalp with his fingers. Suhø leaned into his hand, almost like a cat enjoying an ear rub.

“You’re still okay though, right?” Suhø looked up, eyes searching Kris’s, concern was on the edges of that gaze.

Kris nodded, “I’m okay. I know you’d never hurt me, Suhø.”

Suhø settled back onto Kris’s shoulder, “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He finally waved away the dried release on Kris’s stomach and had himself cleaned up. The dark blue comforter under them was no longer soiled. His arm came around to wrap around Kris’s waist, “I just want you to know that if at any time in the future, if you need us to stop anything, don’t ever hesitate to tell me, okay?”

Kris held Suhø closer, nodding again, a sleepy hum came from him, “Okay.” It was quiet between the two for a moment, their breathing finally back normal, hearts returning to a normal pace. “It’s a bit late for me to say it but… Suhø… I love you.” That blue gaze found his, the look in his eyes had Kris stumbling over his sentences, “I know what we have isn’t… normal… and you’re still a demon… and I know that you’re the brother to my soul mate, but I just… I’m not gay,” his voice dropped to a mumble, “ _I don’t think_ ,” then he continued, “but I love you.”

“I love you too, Yifan,” Suhø snuggled back up to him, lips kissing the patch of skin where his head lied, “It may not make sense to anyone else, but to you and me, our relationship is all that matters.” He chuckled softly, “Are you happy now that I stuck around after that first night?”

Kris laughed, nodding quickly, “I am. More than ever, I am.”

“We can break the news to your mother when we go back this summer,” Suhø grinned, “You said she already gave us her blessing.”

“She did,” Kris shook his head, “She’ll be glad to have Junmyeon as her son-in-law.”


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Kris took a deep, well-need breath of fresh air after finding out the scores of the last three exams. He only had two more and then this semester would be over with. Summer break was only three weeks away. His next exam was next Tuesday, and then his final was the Friday of the second week. Then he’d have one week of getting all the paperwork ready for the Fall semester.

So far, he’d passed the three exams just posted and then the two before that. He couldn’t tell if it was because of all the studying that he’d racked his brain with or the little areas where Suhø helped him out with.

Junmyeon had passed all of his exams so far, but the scores were neutral enough to not raise any questions or concerns. Kris finally noticed during class, when the instructor was handing out the exams, they hardly even spared a glance at Junmyeon. Almost as if the student wasn’t even there. Kris figured that Suhø had something to do with it, but it also made Kris feel bad for the student.

After hearing about Junmyeon’s story about being an A plus student that was working towards graduating top of his classes and then taking on his father’s business, it made Kris a bit sad that the red haired boy was now just a zombie, going through the motions of the days. He’d brought the subject up to Suhø, but the demon shook it off, reminding him that Junmyeon was only a shell. Kris supposed it did slip his mind that Junmyeon was dead, his life was over, because he felt remorseful towards him, but he tried not to dwell on it much.

“You look cute today,” Kris commented on the soft blue sweater that Junmyeon was wearing. The whole outfit looked a bit plain, a bit less dorky without a sweater vest, but the white shirt under and then the beige slacks. The blue color always looked good on Junmyeon, as did the soft pink sweater that he wore on occasion.

The two were seated out on the side of the water fountain that sat in the center of the college yard. It was where most students took lunch, and often times, students even resorted to studying. It was a quiet area with green grass, the water fountain, and a few flowering shrubs. A peaceful environment.

Kris had only ate lunch here a few times when he first started college, he was always alone then. Henry passed by every so often but other than the small pleasantries, he didn’t stick around Kris. Not like Junmyeon has. The boy was basically Kris’s shadow, a much shorter shadow, but he followed Kris around the campus throughout the day. The only time he was separated from Kris was the last class of Monday that Junmyeon didn’t go to.

Junmyeon glanced down at himself as he munched on the apple, “Hmm? Oh, thank you,” he smiled, swallowing the bite, voice lowering into a teasing tone, “Will I ever get a compliment out of you about his sweater vests?”

Kris laughed, shaking his head, “No chance.” He took another slice of the kimbap that Suhø had made for him in a small lunch container. There were some of the dumplings that Suhø had conjured up that his mother taught him how to make. “Summer break is only three weeks away."

Junmyeon nodded, “It is.” He took another bite of the apple, stealing a slice of the kimbap from Kris’s container, “Ready to go back home for the next two months?”

Kris stuck his tongue out at Junmyeon at the stealing of his food, “I am. Mama hasn’t been calling as often, I guess since she knew the exams were coming up, and I really miss her.”

Junmyeon’s gaze drifted over Kris’s shoulder when the boy looked down to grab one of the dumplings to eat, his gaze returning to Kris’s when the boy looked back up, “I’m sure she misses you too.” He tossed the remainder of the apple into the trash bin, and ate the slice of kimbap, “Are you going to tell her about us when we go back?”

Kris hummed, it would be hard not to with how much closer they had gotten, and he knew that the news would be something that Kris’s mother would love to hear, “Just her though. I’m not sure how my aunt would take the news. And I really don’t want my uncle finding out.”

“I don’t think he’ll be an issue,” the smile that crossed Junmyeon’s face was Suhø’s all day long. It was foreign on the boy’s face, despite them looking so similar, it wasn’t Junmyeon’s smile at all. Too devious. Too _scary_.

Kris stared at the boy for a moment, “There won’t be a repeat of the night in the bathroom either, I assume.”

“He learnt his lesson, and so much more,” Junmyeon’s voice took on a different tone. “He fucked with the wrong person, _and no one gets away with hurting my darling._ ”

The statement had Kris’s eyes widening but he shook it off, “ _Before_ , that tone would’ve scared me… but now, that’s a comfort.” Junmyeon grinned mischievously at Kris, the grin widening when Kris reached over and ruffled the boy’s hair, “Definitely a comfort.”

Junmyeon pushed his hand away, laughing as he tried to fix his hair back neat, “I’m glad, but I only speak the truth.” He decided to tease the boy again, voice dropping even further in that otherworldly tone, **_**“Darling.”**_**

That one that Kris pausing, glancing around to make sure no one else heard it, but everyone else was preoccupied with their studies or eating lunch. He looked back to Junmyeon, the dark eyes flashing blue for a split second, before winking at Kris. He burst into a laugh at the raised eyebrow.

“I’ll keep that tone for the bedroom, I get it,” Junmyeon raised his hands up in defense, causing Kris to choke on his spit. He patted the boy’s back as he coughed. He laughed again, “I love teasing you.”

Kris coughed, “You’re annoying.”

As Kris finally got himself under control again, coughs tampering off, Junmyeon smiled, “But you love me.”

At that kind of smile, and at those words, a smile reflecting Junmyeon’s crossed Kris’s lips, “I do.”

“We got about ten more minutes before next class, finish your lunch, darling,” Junmyeon nodded to the two remaining dumplings in the container.

The next class went by in almost no time, the lesson was basically a prep for the exam coming up in two days, and for the most part, Kris felt like he was mentally prepared for the exam. It also helped that the last few exams, Suhø had been helping him out when he was stuck. The demon allowed him to complete the questions that he knew the answers to and the ones that he was stuck on, they were completed for him before time ran out.

It helped tremendously with his anxiety, and he wasn’t as worried about the exams, but he didn’t take the help for granted. Still studying hard and racking his brain for answers when taking the test.

He almost felt sorry for the other students when he saw some of them pulling at their hair and burying their faces in the palm of their hands during the exam. He would’ve resembled them too if it hadn’t been for Suhø’s interventions.

“I never asked before but why did you pick this college?” Junmyeon asked as he walked by Yifan’s side across the campus from the late class. The sun was already setting, Yifan’s arm was around his shoulder as the two walked. “I figured you wanted distance from your uncle, but why _this_ college?”

He looked around at the campus, the water fountain that he and Yifan found themselves eating lunch on the side of more and more daily. The slowly vacating courtyard where the students were packing up their studying books, laptops, and notebooks to head onto the dorms. The dimly lit path that lead them to the dorms, he’d noticed them throughout the times he walked beside Yifan on the way back for the evenings.

But he hadn’t really stopped to take in the sights like he was now.

Digging into the memories of Junmyeon’s, Suhø found the images of the college in Seoul. It resembled the one that Yifan attended, but more… traditional in its ways. The classrooms weren’t as spacious, and the instructors weren’t as formal as the ones in South Korea, but he knew that was cultural differences.

“It was decent from the brochures, and had a higher success rate with graduates,” Yifan replied, as they finally reached the entrance of the dorm building, he pulled open the door for Junmyeon. He yawned, “I’m tired.”

Junmyeon thanked him and allowed Yifan’s arm to wrap around his shoulders again, “I wouldn’t doubt it, all the studying you’ve been doing, even when I’ve asked you to come to bed. You need more sleep.”

Yifan sighed, “I do. Tomorrow is Saturday, so I’ll be able to sleep in tomorrow morning.”

Junmyeon agreed, starting up the stairs but capturing Yifan’s hand when his arm fell from his shoulders, leading the boy up, “I won’t let anything disturb you either.”

Yifan snorted a laugh, “You mean _you_ won’t disturb me.” His statement earned a wink back at him as they made it to the second floor and started down the hall.

Just as Junmyeon was about to change the subject, Yifan’s phone started ringing. It confused the taller boy because it hardly ever rang other than when his mother was going to give him a call, and she always sent out a small text to check if it was okay to call. The time difference was something that she took into consideration and didn’t want to end up waking up Yifan or disrupting his classes with her call.

But the name on the screen wasn’t his mother’s, it was his aunt’s. It had Yifan’s mind reeling at the reason why his aunt would be calling instead as he answered the phone. He didn’t notice the smile from moments ago falling from Junmyeon’s face, nor did he notice the way that he glared over Yifan’s shoulder.

“Hello? Auntie? Is everything okay?”

Suhø heard the voice on the other end, “Yifan, it’s your mother,” the voice trailed off for a moment, a shakiness taking hold of her tone when she continued, “She didn’t want me to say anything to you, she knew your exams were going on right now, and she made me promise not to contact you, but it’s not looking too good right now.”

“What?” Yifan’s eyes had gone wide, “What do you mean-”

“This last week, she’s been in bed without any strength to get up. I’ve been taking care of her, but then earlier today…” her voice trailed off into sniffles, “She collapsed, Yifan, we’re at the hospital now, and she’s not snapping out of it. The doctors… the doctors said she had a year left, but they said something like this could happen.”

Yifan froze at that, a year left? _His mother had a year left?_ “Auntie… what-”

Her voice was watery now when she answered, “It’s cancer. She found out about it a year and a half ago, but she didn’t want to tell you since you were going away to college. She didn’t want you to worry, Yifan, and she begged me not to say anything to you about it…” his aunt continued going on about his mother’s condition, but his mind stopped processing everything after she uttered that one word. _Cancer_.

His mother had cancer. It made sense now. The tiredness she had, not sleeping well, her movements when he had visited. The weakness… the stubbornness and the refusal to tell him anymore about her condition. She didn’t want him worrying about her while he was away at college.

And to hear that she only had a year left. Since when? How long ago had ‘ _a year left_ ’ been announced? How much time did he have left with her? Or to hear from her since he was thousands of miles away?

He hadn’t realized that he had crumbed to his knees on the floor, until Junmyeon’s fingers were prying the phone from his hands. He didn’t know that he had tears streaming down his face until he found his head pressed into the crook of Junmyeon’s neck, and he could feel the wetness there on the red head’s skin.

“Hey, Yixian? It’s Junmyeon, what’s going on?” The boy feigned his confusion, but Suhø knew exactly what was going on. “Yifan’s crying-”

“It’s his mother, Junmyeon, I know she didn’t want me to tell him because I know he’s taking it hard, but I’m so scared right now. She collapsed earlier and I don’t think she’s going to wake up…” her voice trailed off into a sob. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Junmyeon held Kris to him, rubbing his back in circles to try to calm him down, but he knew that the boy was breaking down, “It’s okay, Yixian, you did the right thing. Yifan deserved to know.” He attempted to help Kris back up, the boy clinging to him, crying softly into his shoulder, he hushed him gently with a soft reassurance, “I’m going to take care of Yifan now, you take care of yourself too, and please, keep us updated if there’s any changes with Mama Wu?”

“I-I will,” she sniffled again, he heard her soft crying start before she ended the call.

“Come on, Yifan, let’s get you inside the dorm,” Junmyeon coaxed, pocketing Kris’s phone, and now having both arms to support Kris. The taller boy clung to him as they moved the door to their dorm room. “It’s okay, Yifan, it’ll be okay, I promise.”

The small whispers of comfort were still lost to the whirlwind going through Kris’s mind. He couldn’t stop thinking about the times he’d asked his mother about the dark circles, about her sleep patterns, about her overall health, he should’ve known something major was going on. He should’ve been there for her.

He couldn’t stop thinking that he was so far away from her right now, he needed to go back home, he needed to be by his mother’s side right now. He had to go back home. College be damned when it came in comparison to his mother.

But then through the racing thoughts going on through his head, he’d forgotten that he had the ultimate game changer right here.

He didn’t know that he was on his bed now, he didn’t know how he’d gotten there, he couldn’t remember anything from the moment his knees hit the floor to even getting to the inside of their dorm room. But lying right there beside him, in Junmyeon’s body, was the one person he needed, the one person he knew that could change all this.

“ _Suhø_ ,” he called, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes but they just kept coming. He sniffled, clutching to Junmyeon’s hand, “Suhø, I’ll give you my soul if-”

“ _Don’t you dare_ ,” Junmyeon was glaring at him once those words had started to fall from Kris’s mouth. The glare softened when Kris started crying again, pleads falling from his lips again.

“But she’s dying, you know she’s dying, you have to take-”

Junmyeon shook his head, eyes flashing blue, “ _I’m not going to take your soul._ I want you to rest and let me take care of this.” Suhø phased out of Junmyeon’s body, standing beside the bed. The red haired student’s eyes turning vacant, his hold was a little less firm now, “Junmyeon will stay with you. _Rest.”_

Kris was about to ask what he was going to do but when he turned to Suhø’s direction, the demon was gone.

Junmyeon’s soft voice drew his attention back to him, “It’s going to be okay, Yifan. I’m here for you.”

He curled up to Junmyeon’s body, head buried into the dead boy’s neck as his eyes started filling up with tears again. He didn’t know what Suhø had planned, but it wasn’t stopping him fearing the possibility of his mother dying. If Suhø couldn’t save her, he truly would be alone in the world.

“This is part of his path, Suhø-” the guide tried to shout, but it was cut short by the punch landing on his face. “I’m just following-” Another punch landed on the other side of his face.

He cried out when the knee found his stomach, if he was a human, he would’ve lost the contents of his stomach on the ground below him. It didn’t stop him from doubling over in pain, clutching to his stomach, and leaving his face open for a few more punches.

The guardian angel had ended up in a whimpering and bloody mess by the time Suhø had finished delivering blows and kicks to his body.

“I told you that I would kick your ass the next time you showed your face to me,” Suhø growled, the two of them were on top of the apartment building where Kris’s aunt’s apartment was. Luhan had appeared shortly after Suhø arrived there.

“Pri-Prince Suhø… it’s his-”

“His life path, I get it, and do you know I say to that?” Suhø cocked an eyebrow upwards, he kicked Luhan’s stomach again, “ ** _ **Fuck his life path**_**. I’ll rewrite the whole damn thing if I have to, and I’m going to.”

Luhan whimpered, unsure of what area to clutch, everything was hurting from Suhø’s kicks and punches, “Wha-”

Suhø raised his empty palm up, staring at it as a black orb slowly started forming, “When Kris’s uncle approached him that night, you were there, you were watching the whole exchange without interfering, like the little fucker you are, I touched that bastard’s soul, and from it, I drew his time. Bits and pieces of his time.” The black orb slowly started to dissolve into grains of sand in his palm. The sands of Kris’s uncle’s hourglass. “I knew it’d come in handy later on, and I was right.”

Luhan shook his head, wincing at the pain as he did so, “You can’t-”

“ _You_ can’t, _I_ can.” Suhø grinned, nodding down at the grounds below them, “The bastard will be alright… for a few months. Kris’s mother? She’s got a long way to go, she’s going to see her son graduate. I promised her I’d take care of him, and this is me taking care of him.” He nudged Luhan with his shoe, pushing the guide over onto his back, “Go back to Kris, you’re his guide, not his mother’s nor his uncle’s. You shouldn’t even be _here_.”

Just as Luhan tried to reply to that, Suhø disappeared from sight. Luhan tried to reach out to feel where the demon prince was going but it was left untraceable. He moved over onto his side, and slowly picked himself up, coughing as his insides felt like they’d been rearranged by Suhø’s punches. His body hurt.

He wanted to go after Suhø, but when he started to phase out, he crumbled back to the ground, whimpering in pain. His own healing wasn’t kicking in. He figured it was Suhø’s doings.

Suhø appeared in the hospital room that belonged to Kris’s mother. She was lying on the bed, pale as the sheet that covered her from the waist down, eyes closed, a breathing mask over her nose and mouth, wires and monitors hooked up to her. The faint beeping noise filled the room around them, letting him know how her heart rate was. He edged closer to the bed, unseen by the cameras in the room, unseen by the nurses that stopped to check on her.

He stepped up to the bed, hand closing over her hand that was resting to her side. When he touched her, her soul rose from her chest, coming to rest in his hand. The beeping noise from the heart monitor jumped, becoming irregular, and sending an alert to the nurses.

“You’re going to be just fine, Yizhen, I give you twenty more years to be by your son’s side,” Suhø murmured, allowing the time that he’d taken from Kris’s uncle to flow into the milky white orb that rested in his hand. “You will pass peacefully in your sleep _after_ living to see the successful man your son has become.”

As the nurses and doctors worked on the body of Kris’s mother to get her back stable, Suhø allowed the soul to ease back into her body. He stepped away, glancing back to see her sister outside the glass that separated her from the room, she was sobbing and pleading that her sister would live. Just as the beeping from the heart monitor started evening out again, and when Kris’s mother started to wake up, Suhø disappeared.

Everything was going to be okay now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sad to say it but this story is coming to a close within the next few chapters. 
> 
> It's still undecided my next work, but it's a cross between an Alpha/Omega!verse fic with Alpha!Suho and Omega!Kris, or a Heaven VS Hell fic of angel!Junmyeon, demon!Kris, and king of hell!Suhø. Not sure yet. kekeke~


	17. Chapter Seventeen

The sounds of the soft crying coming from his aunt hurt Kris, but he didn’t feel the slight bit of sadness for the person lying in the coffin. He couldn’t find it in himself to feel any remorse, only relief, only a sense of peace. He’d felt that peace before, the morning after he’d cried himself to sleep in Suhø’s arms. That was just due to the knowledge that he was safe from the man’s hold, _this_ peace was due to the fact that the man was dead now. He couldn’t haunt Kris anymore, he didn’t have a chance to do so.

As he glanced over at his cousins, the ones that Suhø had told him that were abused by the man too, he found that he wasn’t alone in those sentiments. They looked like they were saddened by the events, but they hadn’t shed a single tear. Much like how Kris hadn’t shed a single tear. Not when his mother called him with the news about his uncle’s passing, not when he boarded the plane to return home for the brief burial ceremony, not one tear had fallen.

Unlike four months ago when the last three weeks of college was over with, and he couldn’t wait to see his mother again.

Kris had waited up with reddened eyes and nose deep in tissue by the time Suhø had reappeared in his bedroom, the call that followed shortly after from his aunt told him that the demon had taken care of his mother. He didn’t go into details about what exactly he did to save his mother’s life, but that was okay with Kris, as long as she was alive and well, that’s all that mattered to him.

“Yifan?” Junmyeon nudged his side, getting his attention. The red head nodded towards the casket where he was next in line to place his rose onto the surface of it. Junmyeon didn’t have a rose, but he stayed by Kris’s side the whole time.

To anyone else, it would just look like the supportive friend, but to Kris’s mother, she’d already been told the news about the two. The very first day of summer break, Kris had told her the news, but opting to keep it a secret from everyone else. Something that she didn’t mind, even though she wanted to brag to everyone about her future son-in-law.

Kris stepped up to the coffin and placed the rose down on top of it, then he and Junmyeon went back to their seats. The ceremony only lasted another hour, and then Kris and Junmyeon would have to board the plane back to the college. He’d been allowed a small grace period for his assignments and tests with his instructors after informing them of the death of his uncle, and they were more than eager to accommodate him.

His mother looked more and more like her old self now. Her skin regained its natural color, her eyes looked healthy, no more dark circles, she’d been sleeping better. Her energy was slowly coming back to her. The doctors weren’t sure what happened other than the cancer that she’d had was slowly disappearing. Given a few months time, it would be completely gone, something that couldn’t be explained.

It didn’t have to be explained to Kris, all he cared about was the fact that his mother was still here, still alive, and getting better every day that passed. He couldn’t stop thanking Suhø enough for saving his mother.

He was willing to give up whatever he had, sacrifice himself, his soul, whatever he had to so that she would live.

Suhø tended to ignore such words.

“You look like you’re getting better every day, Mama,” Kris stated as he hugged her close once they arrived at the airport.

She smiled, despite her eyes being red from crying earlier, that was the only discoloration of her face, “I’m feeling better. The doctors still don’t know how it happened… I chalk it up to a miracle.”

Kris chuckled softly, “Whatever it is, I’m just glad for it. I’d be lost with you, Mama.”

She embraced him close again, “I’m glad for it too. I feared that I wouldn’t get to see you graduate, now I believe I will.” She sighed, “I’m still sorry for asking your aunt not to say anything to you about my condition, I didn’t want you to worry.” She pulled back and looked over at Junmyeon, “I told Junmyeon a little about my condition but to keep it a secret too, only that he’d take care of you when I couldn’t anymore.”

Kris watched as she embraced Junmyeon, “It’s true I would’ve worried, but I still wished you had told me.”

“What matters is that I’m getting well now,” she concluded, looking at Junmyeon and then back at Kris, “I’m still happy that you two are together now.” She winked at Junmyeon, “I already gave him my blessing for when he got up the nerve to confess to you.”

Junmyeon chuckled softly, “Thank you, Mama Wu, my family felt the same way, despite it not being a common thing in my country. But as long as my studies aren’t disrupted, they wouldn’t mind anyway.”

“That’s a little sad to hear, your family is always so busy and so concerned with your grades,” she murmured, nodding towards Kris, “I wouldn’t have minded if he had picked a store clerk position, as long as he was happy and healthy.”

“That’s just how they are,” Junmyeon shrugged. Digging through Junmyeon’s memories, he had always been suffocated with family expectations and striving to be on top. Suhø was a bit saddened by that, but every family was different.

The call for their flight interrupted the conversation into more goodbyes as Kris and Junmyeon grabbed their bags and headed towards the boarding area. Kris’s mother watched as they slowly disappeared into the crowd of people. The lasting promises of returning for the winter holidays being something she was left to look forward to.

“There won’t be any repercussions for you saving my mother, will there?” Kris asked once they’d gotten seated on the plane. It had been a question of his for awhile now that he hadn’t asked. He was too busy being relieved that his mother was alive.

Junmyeon shook his head, “The only repercussion, you could say, was the death of your uncle.” He shrugged, voice lowering, “I took some of his time away from his life and gave it to your mother. She’s got another twenty years ahead of her now.”

The next question that Kris asked, he was hesitant at, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer. Wasn’t sure if he wanted to ponder the possibility. “Was she supposed to die? That night in the hospital?”

Junmyeon was quiet for a moment before answering that question, his hand finding Kris’s where it was clutching to the arm of the chair, easing the boy’s grip to loosen, “It wouldn’t have been that night, but within a three day period, she would’ve passed away.” The sudden intake of breath from Kris had Junmyeon slipping his hand into Kris’s and squeezing softly, “But she’s fine now, so you can get those bad thoughts out of your head. I made sure she’s fine, and you know I wouldn’t lie to you, not about this.”

Kris had to blink back the tears that threatened to fill up in his eyes, he couldn’t get the thoughts out of his head about what a world without his mother would’ve been like. Suhø would’ve still been by his side, but the one person that’s always been there, she would’ve been gone. It felt hard to breathe for a moment, but the more that Junmyeon’s thumb rubbed at his knuckles, the easier it became. He thought he was seeing things but he figured his calmness was coming from the slight glow around that thumb.

“I’m… I’m glad you decided to stick around for me. That you thought my soul was interesting enough to stick around,” Kris quietly stated after getting his barrens back together. “I know you said it had to do with your twin’s soul recognizing me, and then with the history that happened with my uncle, but I’m still glad you stuck around.”

Junmyeon smiled, sitting back in the seat, “I am too, I feel like we would’ve crossed each other’s paths again if I hadn’t stuck around when I did.”

Kris was quiet again for a moment, sitting back in his seat as well, the two staring ahead at nothing in particular, “If you couldn’t have saved her any other way, if I offered you my soul, would you have taken it?”

“Hmm, you would’ve needed a virgin,” Junmyeon shrugged, “It wouldn’t have worked. Just be glad that I worked everything out without your offering.”

“I am,” he squeezed Junmyeon’s hand softly, “I am glad for what you did.”

By the time the plane landed and they caught a ride back to the dorms, it was well into the early hours of the morning. The whole trip had Kris dragging himself up the stairs and into the dorm, he was sleepy and tired. When they landed, he was snoozing away on Junmyeon’s shoulder, and had barely woken up enough to make the trip back to the college.

The two had dropped their bags by the door after they entered, kicking off their shoes and leaving them where they landed, opting to clean up in the morning. Kris wanted nothing more than to make it to his bed and collapse. And Suhø wasn’t against the notion.

“When we get our own place, we need a bigger bed,” Suhø curled up to Kris’s side after the boy had flopped down on the bed. He’d let Junmyeon retreat to his own room on the way to Kris’s. Kris looked over at him, confused for a moment, and Suhø clarified, “After you graduate, of course.”

Kris laughed, “How am I going to do that? I barely have enough funds to get through college. I don’t have anything to buy a place with after I graduate.”

Suhø chuckled, propping himself up on his elbow, “I think I can help with that. Besides, you’ve got two more years to go… I think I can come across someone that might want to give you an offer when you graduate.”

Well… Kris liked the sounds of that. “I have a feeling you’re going to tweaking a lot of things in my life, aren’t you?”

Suhø pressed a kiss to his cheek, “If you only knew how many things I’ve already _tweaked_ for you.” He lied back down, head resting on Kris’s shoulder, “But you’re still going to have to work hard for everything you want.”

Kris returned the kiss with his own to the top of Suhø’s head, “Of course.” He hummed, staring up at the ceiling, “I want an empire.”

“And he didn’t see anything extraordinary about your life,” Suhø tsked, throwing a small glare towards the other side of the room. His remark made Kris look up and over at the area. Suhø murmured softly, “He was a fool to think that I would let you go down that path.”

“Down what path?” Kris asked, but then added, something that he noticed the last few months, “You haven’t been making many snide comments about my guardian angel lately…”

Suhø chuckled, “He’s staying out of the way, but of course he would, I beat the shit out of him the night that I went to your mother in the hospital, so he’s keeping his distance.” Kris’s eyes were wide and confused when Suhø looked up at him. The demon laughed again, “I warned him beforehand that if he showed his face to me again, I’d kick his ass. And I meant what I said.”

Well… that made sense, but still, Kris couldn’t believe that the demon had actually fought against his guardian angel.

“But to answer your question, about your path, your guide has a life path all written out for you when you’re born, and they’re to oversee that life path. While I do blame him for the events that happened with your uncle, and despise him for allowing it to happen, it was in your life path,” Suhø replied. “Your original life path, before I stepped in, was a life path of tragedy, as you could already tell.”

Kris nodded, “I wondered about that when my aunt called about Mama. Everything that had happened so far in my life, throughout childhood up to then… what would’ve happened to me if you hadn’t saved her?”

Suhø looked hesitant to tell him, his hand coming up to find the side of Kris’s face, something Kris loved when he did, but he didn’t like the way that Suhø was staring at him. A saddened expression on his face, one of loss. “If I hadn’t crossed your path, you would’ve been by yourself, alone, still carrying the secret of the abuse from your uncle, your mother would’ve passed away when she was in the hospital, you would’ve been miles away, guilt would’ve eaten at you. For not being there to take care of your mother. For not knowing. And having all those emotions building up inside you… a year after she passed, you would’ve hung yourself on the day that she died.”

The sudden intake of breath from Kris was expected, the way his eyes welled up with tears, Suhø dreaded seeing those eyes watery, he hated when Kris cried. It made his insides ache, and all he wanted to do was put a smile back on that beautiful face.

“That was your _original_ life path,” Suhø reminded him, brushing his thumb against the tear that managed to escape the boy’s eye, “But I saw greatness in you. You want an empire? I’ll build you your empire.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only two chapters left now. :D
> 
> The Heaven VS Hell fic will be next. If you've read my fic Of Heaven & Of Hell, it's loosely based around that. There'll be two Krises and two Suhos. 
> 
> One Kris is God, Yifan is the demon, Suho is Satan, and Junmyeon is an angel.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**_**40 Years Later…** _ **

**__ **

“Yes, Mr. Wu, everything is in order. The paperwork was filed yesterday, it’s being processed as we speak, and it’ll be complete before the end of the week,” the assistant stated, reading over the reports, reading over her notes that she’d taken. All in preparation for the older gentleman’s retirement and leaving his assets and business in the hands of his adopted daughter.

Wu Yifei.

“Good, I’ll make the announcement later on today at the briefing. Thank you for all your hard work, Janice. I hope you’ll continue to assist Yifei when I finally step down.”

She smiled softly, “Yes, sir. I’ll do my best. Shall I call the driver to pick up the hubby?”

“Please do. I can’t imagine doing the announcement without him by my side.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll see to it that he’s here for you,” she stood up, bowing slightly and walked out of the office, closing the doors behind her.

Kris turned around in his chair, staring at the city below him. He had one of the tallest buildings in Beijing, his office was on the top floor, giving him a view of the city during the day and night as he worked his fingers to the bone, with proposals, new ideas, and building everything that was under him.

He’d opened five more companies over the world, his main headquarters was here, back in his homeland of China. It wasn’t easy, but over the last few decades, he’d created all that he was about to hand down to his only child. She was working in her own office down the hall, working on her acceptance speech, and busying herself with the company’s new plans. Just like her father did.

He stood up, and stepped up to the tall glass windows of the office, staring out at the city before his gaze drifted upwards towards the big white clouds that filled the sky here and there. The sun was shining brightly. The sky a beautiful blue color.

After working so hard to get where he was, he was finally giving everything up for a quiet little home that he and Suhø had picked out years ago, but hadn’t been able to enjoy it much. It was in the countryside, they’d only ever used it for vacationing, and now it was finally going to be their residence as they enjoyed old age together.

He can’t remember how long he stared out the windows but it must’ve been over an hour because the only time he turned away from the scenery below and the thoughts in his head was when he heard the doors to his office open.

In came the red haired man that he loved, his smooth skin gone, wrinkled with time, much like his own. Kris was sporting graying hair, but Junmyeon’s was still as bright red as it could be. His movements weren’t as fast as they used to be, slowed down with age.

But of all things that had changed in appearance, the hideous sweater vests never went anywhere.

At least today’s wasn’t _as_ hideous. It was a simple navy blue and beige sweater vest over a white button-down, tan slacks, and black polished shoes. Those dark brown eyes were shielded behind a pair black thick-rimmed glasses. Despite the demon not needing them, and Kris saying they made him looked like a bigger dork, Junmyeon still wore them.

“Ready to say goodbye to it all?” Junmyeon asked, stepping up beside him to look out at the scenery that Kris was staring at.

Kris nodded, then shrugged, and then laughed, “I don’t know. It’s going to feel so weird not having to get up so early in the morning and be here in the office and going through mountains and mountains of paperwork. The countless trips back and forth to the other companies.” Junmyeon reached up to rub at his tense shoulders, causing Kris to lean into the touch, “Yifei is going to have her hands full.”

Junmyeon smiled, “She is, but we taught her well. She’ll do great. She’s got your drive, and she’s got my little backup for any kind of support she needs.”

When they adopted little Yifei, she was only eight months old, having been put up for adoption by a mother that couldn’t provide for her. Kris wanted a child, someone to leave everything he had created to, so they adopted Yifei. The secret identity of her other father was never revealed to the child, she only knew Junmyeon as her _strange_ Appa. With the bad fashion sense.

Suhø figured it best that she was kept in the dark so it wouldn’t cause any complications down the line, the only thing she did know was that anything that she wanted or needed, it was provided for. And the little detail of how some of the boys that broke her heart ended up in some of the most embarrassing situations afterwards. Almost as if fate was watching out for her.

She didn’t have to know that it was her red haired Appa exacting revenge on whoever dared to make his daughter cry.

Kris glanced over at the red head, “We’re two of the luckiest humans I know of. To have someone like you love us.”

Those dark eyes flashed bright blue for a split second, a smirk growing on Junmyeon’s face, one that was Suhø’s plain as day, “You are. I have enjoyed every second of it too…” but then he grimaced, “well, other than her crying at night when she was eight months old and the messy diapers.”

Kris laughed, “We’ve come a long way from that. Now to wait for grandchildren.” He grew silent at that, turning back to the sky above. “How much longer do I have?”

“Yifan, that’s cheating,” Junmyeon replied, wagging his fingers at the taller man, turning to look up at the sky too. The man hadn’t asked those kind of questions for the last few decades, leaving everything safely in Suhø's hand. His voice grew quiet, “Not much longer. You’ll pass away peacefully in your sleep a year after Yifei’s first child is born.”

Kris hummed, “Thank you.” He glanced back at Junmyeon, hand finding the other’s, “You’ll still guide my soul on home?”

Junmyeon nodded, “You know I will.”

Kris brought their hands up, kissing the back of Junmyeon’s, “I love you, Suhø.”

Junmyeon’s hand squeezed Kris’s softly, “I love you too.” He exhaled deeply, “After this life with you, I can finally understand why my brother wanted to be human so much. To have met someone like you, it would make it worth it to reincarnate over and over just for the chance of finding you again.”

A slight red tinted Kris’s cheeks, “I’m still nothing special, Suhø, but thank you for sticking around with me all these years.”

“If only you could see what I see in you,” Junmyeon murmured, tugging on Kris’s hand, “Come on, we’ve got that conference meeting in a few minutes.”

Kris moved over to his desk and grabbed his tie, Junmyeon pulled it from his hands to place it on the taller man himself, “I’m glad you picked out a normal looking sweater vest.”

Junmyeon laughed, glancing down at himself before resuming his task at tying the tie, “You know that in all our pictures for the press, I’m blurred out though, right?”

Kris nodded, it was to protect the identity of Suhø as Junmyeon. It was no longer Kim Junmyeon standing in front of him, it was _Wu_ Junmyeon. It was also to prevent Kim Junmyeon’s family from recognizing their son in the papers, their _dead_ son. “I know, but still, nice _normal_ sweater vest.”

The hands tying the tie froze, Junmyeon’s eyes widened, mouth agape, “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever complimented his sweater vests. _He’s_ practically gleaming inside right now.”

Kris laughed, shaking his head, “A first for everything. Probably will be the _only_ time I ever compliment them.”

Junmyeon hummed, “I don’t know. That one time when he was in the bright red sweater vest… I could see you liked that one.” He winked, causing Kris’s cheeks to flush.

Kris cleared his throat, “Only because it was _your_ color, you red-obsessed demon.”

A laughed fell from Junmyeon’s lips, “Maybe I’ll swap out my blazer for it?” He winked, “As an adventure waiting for us when we get back home.”

Kris shook his head to clear his thoughts from the direction they were going in, “ _Press conference_ , I have to focus on that.”

Junmyeon finished his tie, chiming in, “Of course you do, darling, you can focus on _me_ later on tonight.”

“You’ll have my full undivided attention,” Kris promised, leaning down to kiss the man.

The door opening to his office interrupted them, “ _Baba_ , the press is waiting for you, you can kiss Appa later.” Yifei’s voice chided as she waited by the door, a small stack of papers in her arms. She was dressed much like her Baba, a simple black suit. Something that Kris had been grateful for, she’d taken after him when it came to fashion.

Kris nodded at that, yeah, he can kiss Appa later, along with other things, “Coming, sweetie.”

His hand found Junmyeon’s as they started out of the room, in front of him was his daughter, leading the way. Several years ago, he could only dream of being where he was right now. With the demon by his side, and his own little angel in front of him, he’d gotten his empire, and now it was time to pass it on.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

“Okay, sweetie, I’ve got the rest of the afternoon off, so you can play for an hour before we have to go home and get started on your homework,” his mother told him, letting go of his hand as they stepped into the playground area.

It was a wide field with different patches of trees and shrubs, a few sets of swings, and then three different jungle gyms. Each one was slightly different than the other, and each one of them was covered with children of all ages playing. A few feet away from the jungle gyms was the small benches under the shady trees, one that his mother picked out to started reading her newspaper.

Before he ran off to join the other kids on the jungle gym, his eyes widened when he caught the newspaper his mother set down beside herself as she busied herself with getting out his juice and snack for whenever he got hungry, he pointed at the headline on the paper, “Hey, Mama, that man has my name!”

“Hm?” She paused in zipping the bag back up to glance down at the newspaper, and there it is. In big, bold print on the front page.

**_**CEO Wu Yifei Honoring Ten Years of Father’s, Wu Yifan, Legacy** _ **

“Well, he certainly does,” she commented, chuckling as she ruffled his dark hair, “Now, don’t you want to use your real name again, _Yifan_? Instead of Kris?”

The little boy looked over the newspaper at the picture of a young woman with an older man beside a red haired man with his face blurred and then back at his mother, shrugging, “None of the other kids at school can pronounce it right though. Kris is easier to pronounce, and I think it’s a cool name.”

Before she could reply to that, he was already running off to play on the jungle gym. She stared after him as he climbed up the ladder to the slide then turned back to the newspaper, reading over the headline again and then skimming over the article. She was a bit impressed by the accomplishments of the current CEO, the owner’s daughter.

She read over the part where the owner, Wu Yifan, had passed away ten years ago in his sleep at the age of seventy-six, leaving behind his husband and his daughter. His daughter had opened up ten more companies worldwide since then, raising her net worth tremendously. She’d also started her own family all in the midst of her rising career.

Yifan slid down the slide and then ran around to the other side of the jungle gym where he waited for his turn at the monkey bars. He watched as the shorter black haired kid with the large, thick-rimmed glasses moved from one bar to the next with a bit of hesitation. Before he reached the end, the kid’s hand slipped, resulting in him falling and hitting the ground.

A few kids ran up to him to check on him, Yifan being one of them, and when the kid started crying, the others left, not wanting to get in trouble for being mistakenly accused of causing the kid crying. Yifan picked up the kid’s glasses that had fell a little ways away and bent down to the kid’s level, to check to make sure there wasn’t anything broken. The kid was still crying but it was slowly tampering off into sniffles.

“Here you go,” Yifan handed out the glasses after he wiped them off, thankful that they weren’t broken. “You going to be okay?”

The kid looked up at him, eyes squinting as he reached for the glasses, he couldn’t see without them, he sniffled, pushing his glasses back up on his face, “I’m more embarrassed than hurt.”

Yifan laughed softly, “I’m glad, at least you didn’t break anything.” He stood back up and reached out his hand to the kid, “Is this is the first time you tried the monkey bars?”

He helped the kid stand back up and started helping him brush the dirt off his clothes, “I’ve tried it before… but never made it to the end. Umma said it’s cause my arms are too small right now.”

“I can help you,” Yifan suggested, looking at the boy’s arms, they were a bit small, but he figured that was due to the kid’s height. He wondered how old the kid was. “I’m Yifan, but you can call me Kris, if you can’t pronounce Yifan.”

The kid giggled, “ _Yifan_. I can say Yifan.” He pushed the glasses back up on his nose, “I’m Junmyeon… I don’t have another name that’s easier to pronounce…”

“Junmyeon is easy to pronounce,” Yifan shrugged, he nodded towards the stand at the start of the monkey bars again, “Do you want to try it again? I’m tall enough to hold your legs if you need the extra support.”

Junmyeon looked back at the stand warily, then to Yifan, “You… you wouldn’t mind?”

Yifan shook his head, walking back to the stand and stepping in front of it, “I don’t mind. I won’t let you fall.”

“Okay,” Junmyeon stepped back up to the start of the monkey bars and grabbed hold to the first one, Yifan moved slightly out of the way to let himself start off.

It was just like before, he’d successfully reached the middle without any assistance, but Yifan was right beside him, watching him. Just as he reached the sixth bar away from the end, his arms were starting to hurt, and his grip was faltering. He struggled to keep his grip strong, and was about to cry out again when he felt the two arms wrap around his legs, providing support for him to tighten his grip on the bar again.

“I’ve got you,” Yifan murmured, and with his help, Junmyeon successfully reached the end of the monkey bars.

He jumped down from the other platform, a wide grin on his face, “I did it!” He hugged Yifan, “Thank you, Yifan!”

Yifan hugged him back, laughing, “You did, and you’re welcome. You can try it again if you want, I’ll be right beside you.”

Junmyeon hummed, pulling back and looking up at the monkey bars again, “I’ll try again later… let’s go play on the swings.” He didn’t wait for Yifan to answer, his hand finding the other boy’s and pulling him along towards the swing sets.

They found a pair of swings beside one another and quickly stated claims. Junmyeon started swinging higher and higher as Yifan joined by his side. It wasn’t long before they’d turned it into a competition on who could swing the highest. Junmyeon being smaller had a slight advantage against Yifan, and eventually the taller boy got tired.

“Okay, you win,” Yifan huffed, swing slowing down, Junmyeon stopped trying so hard to get higher now, a bright grin on his face when Yifan told him that he’d won. The two came to a slower pace on the swings, “So how old are you, Junmyeon?”

Junmyeon looked over at him, pushing the glasses back up on his nose, “I’m six. How old are you?”

“I’m eight, if you’re six, I guess you’re in the-”

“First grade,” Junmyeon finished for Yifan, “You’re tall for an eight year old.”

Yifan laughed, “My Baba is tall, he said that’s why I’m so tall for my age, my Mama is taller than most ladies are.”

Junmyeon hummed, “All my family is short… well… shorter than most.” He kicked the ground to push himself in the swing once it started to stop, “We’re in different grades and I know I’m younger than you, but do you want to be friends?”

The taller boy looked over at him, amused at the question, “I thought that was obvious when I helped you on the monkey bars.”

“Umma told me to make friends so I can tell her I made one today,” Junmyeon grinned, he came to a stop in the swing and held out his hand to Yifan, “Do you want to meet her?”

Yifan nodded, slipping his hand into Junmyeon’s, “Sure, I can introduce you to my Mama after. They might become friends too!”

As the two got off the swings, hand in hand, Junmyeon lead the way as they ran over to a set of benches that had two ladies sitting, one was feeding a toddler while the other read a newspaper. The two children were completely unaware of the red-suited entity leaning against one of the shady trees. His blue gaze watched the two as they ran up to the younger boy’s mother, a small smile crossing his lips as he continued to watch them.

“It’s not every life you two will find one another… but I’ll take care of the odds,” he murmured quietly to himself, the smile turning sad for a moment, “Be happy, Yifan… love him, dear brother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finished! Suhø got his happy ending, and so did Suho. :) 
> 
> Thank you to all the subscribers, commenters, readers for the continued support! Honestly, I can't thank you guys enough! <3


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